The witches in 'Macbeth' represent a world of cruelty, war and darkness, where power abounds and controls the material world.

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Macbeth assignment

Explore the dramatic significance of the witches in the play Macbeth

The witches in ‘Macbeth’ represent a world of cruelty, war and darkness, where power abounds and controls the material world.

The storyline develops each time the witches appear, but it’s never for a good cause. Every time the witches arise there is a change in the play, for instance; appearing in bad weather such as, thunder, lightning and rain clearly indicates that they have evil thoughts within them. The audience will know that the witches are dangerous and extremely evil minded. The witches had a huge impact on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth; they simply explained what was going to happen, which was that Macbeth and his wife were to become king and queen. This, as a result awakened their expectations therefore freeing them to make their ambitions reality.

Shakespeare begins this play with the witches in order to create a sense of dramatic tension; to engage and horrify the audience; and to prepare them for what is still yet to come. The atmosphere set here will be extremely wicked because in those days witches were known as highly volatile and devilish. The witches’ appearance therefore, tells the audience that something will go wrong during this play.

The witches’ role here is to demonstrate to the audience their evil power. For example, in Act 1 Scene 3 one of the witches reply to Macbeth,

                ‘When shall we meet again, thunder, lightning or in rain?’

Here you can see the immense power that they posses, it stamps a direct point of authority into the audience, it’s as if they can change a sunny day into a rainy one or even day into night which is why the prospect of meeting these wicked creatures is horrifying. This peculiar and most horrifying chanting by the witches in this scene allows the audience to see their authority and cruelty, the combination of which the audience would find more than terrifying. At the time when Shakespeare wrote this play it had to be performed in front of the king to gain his approval. However, it was passed by the king as he too had some history with witchcraft.

The witches predict that Macbeth shall become Thane of Cawdor, and then king of Scotland and that Banquo’s children will rule Scotland thereafter. Shakespeare tells us these predictions so soon to engage the audience fully, and to create dramatic tension within the audience because then the audience will know more than Macbeth himself and that would make the audience more fascinated to know furthermore, because they would want to know what happens to Macbeth. The audience also know that the witches can tell the future because every time Macbeth is near they can sense it.  

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As soon as Macbeth and Banquo hear the predictions both of them react differently, Macbeth pleads ‘stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more’. This shows that he was startled at what he heard because he couldn’t believe that the witches can voice his dreams which were to be king one day. On the other hand, Banquo laughs at the predictions and Macbeth pretends to join him. Banquo knows that the witches mean no good; he believes that the predictions have come out of ridiculed strangers that on stage looked very ugly with torn strange clothes. Their reactions to the ...

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