“Though his bark cannot be lost,
Yet it shall be tempest-tost.”
This shows that the witch is not powerful to sink the ship, but she can create a storm. The ship is a metaphor and represents Scotland, which is going to suffer a ‘storm’ when Macbeth is in control. The witches can only create a climate for evil. They will rely on establishing a link with the darker side of humanity, such as the flaw of ‘vaulting ambition’ in Macbeth. However, there is no doubt that their intention is malevolent and that they are aware of Macbeth’s evil flaw, which they can exploit. This is the first sign of how they will attempt to use their powers to manipulate Macbeth into the murdering of Duncan.
The first words spoken by Macbeth in his first meeting with the witches in Act 1 Scene 3, are very significant. Just before he encounters the three weird sisters, his words parallel their earlier paradox. He states:
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.”
Superficially Macbeth means that the battle and the weather have been foul but their victory has been splendid. However his words echo those spoken in the opening scene by the witches. This could be interpreted in several ways. The witches could have known that he would say these words and were mocking him, the witches could have power over him or Shakespeare is suggesting that Macbeth and the witches are similar in character as well as in speech. I think that their similarity in speech reflects their similarity in character and reveals that Macbeth has an evil flaw within himself. This bond between Macbeth and the witches creates a dramatic tension which is apparent to the audience. The setting in this scene is again on the moors, and removed from society. This clearly shows how Macbeth is linked to evil and the supernatural.
In this scene, the witches speak in rhymes, riddles and chant spells. In their language, the power of the number three is introduced and used to entice the audience:
“Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
And thrice again to make up nine.”
The sense of tension is increased when the witches’ three prophecies reveal a powerful effect upon Macbeth. They chant:
“All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
All hail Macbeth! That shalt be King thereafter!”
The witches provoke the idea of murder into the mind of Macbeth, although there is no direct mention of murder. The thought comes from Macbeth’s mind and is driven by his ambition. The witches externally manipulate Macbeth by attacking his dark, internal thoughts and his evil flaw.
Macbeth is intrigued and made curious by the witches’ words. He demands:
“Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more:”
He becomes impatient, agitated and wants to know more about these predictions, especially the prediction that he will be King, suggesting that the idea of kingship is already present within his mind. Banquo, in contrast, seems to be suspicious of the witches, and unlike Macbeth, has no hidden ambitions. The beginning of his conversion from a brave warrior to a tyrant is clearly evident.
The witches show how both internal and external forces can manipulate an individual. Macbeth was influenced by an external force to trigger the internal flaw within his mind. The audience is aware that supernatural forces have manipulated Macbeth. This enables the audience to develop a sense of pity for Macbeth because his underlying evil may not have been discovered had it not been for the supernatural forces. Shakespeare uses this to heighten the sense of the play being a tragedy and to portray Macbeth as a tragic figure that succumbs to the evil of the witches. On a wider scale, the equivocation and manipulation of the witches reveals how mankind can be easily tempted to achieve success and fulfil desires.
When the first prophecy comes true, Banquo warns Macbeth:
“But tis strange:
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence”
This is the advice of a good, honest man. Banquo is aware of the deceptiveness of evil and the danger of temptation and he warns Macbeth.
In Macbeth’s soliloquy he mentions ‘murder’, which is his own idea created internally. The idea of murder comes from within Macbeth and it is he who connects the idea of kingship with murder. However we also learn this idea is “fantastical”, only existing in his imagination. Macbeth says:
“If chance will have me King, why, chance
may crown me,
Without my stir.”
Macbeth decides to leave the prophecy of Kingship to fate, without his own interference. This reminds the audience that Macbeth is not completely evil, and again we pity him as he has been manipulated. However Macbeth changes his mind when Duncan announces that Malcolm is to succeed him as king. He now sees Malcolm as an obstacle between himself and the throne and he succumbs to his ambition and the prospect of power. Macbeth says:
“Stars hide your fires!
Let not the light see my black and deep desires;”
He calls upon the stars to not shine their light on his dark thoughts, which heightens the evil flaw in his character. The witches have ignited his ambition and drive him towards evil doing.
In Act 1 Scene 5 we are introduced to Lady Macbeth and we see her calling upon evil spirits and summoning darkness:
“Come you spirits
That tends on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here.”
Lady Macbeth calls upon the spirits of darkness to remove her natural womanliness and to fill her instead with bitterness, wickedness and cruelty. She does not want any natural feelings of regret or conscience to obscure the murder of Duncan. Lady Macbeth uses dark, violent and chaotic imagery with ease linking her to the witches. The invocation of evil spirits adds to the tension and drama, revealing the dark forces of the supernatural at work in the human world.
When she meets Macbeth she greets him:
“Great Glamis! worthy Cawdor!”
This echoes the language of the witches and is a repetition of their prophecies. This further suggests that there is a connection between Lady Macbeth and the witches. Her language parallels that of witches and suggests similarity in character. Lady Macbeth also has an evil flaw present in her mind. The internal flaw within an individual requires an external force to release it. The witches are the external forces that liberate the evil within an individual. We see Macbeth entangled in a web of immorality spun by the witches and his wife.
In Act 1 Scene 7 Macbeth wrestles with his conscience and he is aware of the morals involved with the terrible deed:
“We will proceed no longer in this business:
He hath honour’d me of late;”
However, Lady Macbeth manipulates him into performing the deed and again she parallels the witches.
When Macbeth has a vision of the dagger, it is difficult to detect illusion and reality, which parallels to the equivocation of the witches. The dagger tempts Macbeth to the murder of Duncan and it is created by his imagination. He is aware of its fallaciousness, but he is unable to control his desire for success and cannot resist its power:
“To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”
The supernatural forces can easily manipulate Macbeth, showing that man can be easily deceived by his own psyche.
Supernatural forces are present on the night of Duncan's murder, which reflect the chaos created by the terrible deed. Lennox says:
“The night has been unruly: where we lay,
Our chimneys were blown down; and, as they say,
Lamentings heard i’ the air; strange screams of
death.”
The description of the night is symbolic of the effect that Duncan’s murder is already having on the world. In the next scene Ross and the Old Man give a description of the unnatural events that occurred on the night of Duncan’s murder. The supernatural happenings emphasise the darkness of the terrible deed and how it has affected the earth and nature. The natural order is disturbed in the animal kingdom, which parallels the destruction of the Divine Right of Kings in the human world. Duncan is described as a “masterpiece” and “Lord’s anointed Temple”, which are religious images and are associated with natural order.
The ghost of Banquo is another supernatural vision that Macbeth sees. The ghost haunts Macbeth. These visions could be caused by his guilt, a sign of his evil nature, or sent by the witches to torment him. Macbeth is the only character that can see Banquo's ghost and the audience is aware of this when Macbeth says:
“The table’s full.”
Macbeth throws the calm and organised atmosphere of the banquet into turmoil in the same way his kingship will cause chaos in Scotland. The turmoil of the banquet is an ominous prediction for the future of Macbeth.
Macbeth chooses to meet with the witches although he is aware of the destruction they are able to create, suggesting he has lost his humanity and his conscience is destroyed. In the witches’ speeches they describe the savagery of dangerous animals. Humans are just like animals with the potential to kill and destroy with the force of evil. The witches use violent, savage and anti-Christian images, which all parallel what Macbeth has become. All the images are against natural order and there is chaos in both the animal world and the human world. The witches still talk in spells and riddles reflecting their deceptiveness. The witches also talk in half rhymes resembling the disorder that the brutal murder has created:
“Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one”
The witches show Macbeth the apparitions, which he misinterprets, as all of them are equivocations. Macbeth finds the positive meaning and believes it to be true. He is unable to see beneath the ambiguous language of the witches as they manipulate him once again and lead him to his death.
The first apparition is an armed head and it says:
“Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff;
Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.”
Macbeth responds to this and says:
“Whate’er thou art, for thy good caution thanks;”
Macbeth thanks the apparition and interprets it to mean that he should be careful of Macduff. The actual meaning is that the head could possibly be the head of Macbeth, used as a prediction, but Macbeth is unable to see the ambiguous meanings.
The second apparition, a bloody child, represents a child born of caesarean. The apparition says:
“none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.”
Macbeth interprets this by thinking that nobody can harm him as every person is “of woman born”. However, Macduff was not born naturally but by caesarean, and Macduff is the person that shall kill Macbeth. The third apparition is a boy holding a tree and it says:
“Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him.”
Macbeth thinks that he will not come to any harm because it is impossible for the wood to move. He feels secure, confident and invincible because he believes these apparitions but he interprets them incorrectly. When the army come to attack him, they hold branches from the trees used as a disguise, therefore Birnam Wood does go to Dunsinaine Hill. The witches manipulate Macbeth and lead him to his tragic end. He is oblivious to the ambiguity of the witches’ language.
The witches leave Macbeth and he is alone. He has interpreted the apparitions to have positive meanings and the witches have deceptively manipulated him.
The supernatural forces and elements contribute much interest to the play and add drama and tension throughout. The supernatural powers release the underlying ambition and desires for power within Macbeth and finally they lead him to his doom. Through the evil already present in Macbeth’s mind they manipulate him into terrible murders. On a wider scale, it shows the potential evil within us all, which can be freed by temptation and desire for a particular goal. The supernatural elements show how internal evil forces present in the mind can be manipulated by external forces. The witches are the cause of the tragedy, as they release the ambition and desire in Macbeth that would have remained buried if not for their malevolent intentions.
