So they know when and why they will meet, but we don’t know where they meet. They continue the conversation by asking where they should meet again. They say on the heath “Upon the heath” 1:1:7, to meet Macbeth. This is the first time that you hear of Macbeth and his connection with the Witches. After you hear of Macbeth it gets the audience thinking who is Macbeth. After you hear that they will be meeting with Macbeth they all hear something calling and say that they are coming to someone. For example, “I come Graymalkin”, Graymalkin is a grey cat. “Paddock calls”, Paddock is a toad. They chant these names because these are the kind of animals that you would associate with the theme of witches. The third witch just says Anon, which means at once I’m coming. At the end of this scene they all chant in unison. They start talking strangely again using their witch language. They exit by saying hover through the fog and filthy air. I do not know quite what the witches mean by this. I think that it is the way that they will leave.
The next scene that the witches appear in is Act One Scene Three. This is one of the most important scenes with the witches. In this scene the witches meet up again in order to meet Macbeth on the Heath. They start the conversation by asking what they have been up to. The activities in which the witches get up to. One of the witches had met a sailors wife. The sailors wife was very rude to the witch, so then the witch sent her husbands ship off course with strong winds. This is good because then you can get more information on what the witches personalities are like, or what they get up to in there spare time. The witches then sense upon Macbeths arrival.
Macbeth is the first to speak. He says
“so foul and fair a day I have not seen”1:3:38. If you go back to act one scene one then you would hear all the witches towards the end saying “fair is foul and foul is fair”. This could be one of the other factors which could explain the powers that the witches possess. When Banquo sees them, he refers to them as “wither’d”, and that they don’t look like they belong to this planet. Elizabethans believed that witches were creatures from hell and servants to the devil. Banquo is talking about them as if they are creatures instead of people or humans. He doesn’t know if they are living or if they are just creatures that are already dead. He soon realises that they understand him. He seems to enjoy insulting them. The difference between Banquo and Macbeth is that Banquo seems to take the witches more as a joke, but Macbeth seems to be taken in by them and fascinated by them. When they see Macbeth they call him by his present status and his future ranks. Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, King. Macbeth is practically hypnotised at the thought of being King and wants tio hear more from the witches,
“Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more”1:3:70.
Because he reacts in this way, he feels that he should carry out his tasks to become king of Scotland. Banquo is trying to tell Macbeth that the witches are just speaking nonsense and that he shouldn’t get his hopes up. Or that it might never happen and should just forget about it. After Banquo tries to talk to Macbeth, the witches start praising Banquo. They say that his descendants will become King but he won’t. This adds to the killing of Banquo by Macbeth later on in the play. This is because Macbeth wants to secure his position on the throne. Macbeth wants to hear more about his fate and future and is engrossed in finding out. Banquo just seems to find the witches funny and pathetic .
If Macbeth had chosen to ignore the predictions as Banquo did, then they would have continued on, Macbeth would become Thane of Cawdor and the the story would continue without the murdering.
In this scene the witches carried out the plan that they produced in scene one. So now the plot is really going to start picking up pace from this point forward. This is probably the main scene containing the witches in. This is because they put the ideas into Macbeth’s head to try to become King. By meeting him the Wyrd Sisters changed his fate. After seeing the witches Macbeth becomes the Thane of Cawdor, this makes him believe that the predictions are true. The witches are doing this not to help anyone. They are mischievous servants to the devil and they enjoy watching people killing each other. They probably planned this and it is working at the moment and continues to work until the end of the play. The witches must have done something like this before. At the start of this scene when the witches are talking about where they have been. One of the witches talks about a sailors wife “A sailors wife had chestnuts on her lap” 1:3:4. This is maybe one of the other subjects that the witches have been changing the fate of.
Towards the end of the section in act one scene three when the witches are on there own. It sounds as if they are very good friends and they are like a little gang. Witches are like a business and the Wyrd sisters is like a small part of this company. I think this because of their little poem (or chant) at the end of that small section of the scene. On lines 35 and 36 of scene three “Thrice to thine and, and thrice to mine, and thrice again to make up nine.”. This I find very hard to understand. This is mainly the fact that they don’t tell you what it is three times of or what they are talking about. All that I Know is that Thrice means three times, and thine means belonging to thee. I do not see what relevance in this end part. I just think that it was put there because the audience liked to see the witches and enjoyed watching them perform.
The final scene containing the witches in is Act 4 Scene One. This is the scene where Macbeth goes to visit the witches after he has been crowned king. At this point in the play Macbeth wants to see what will become of him in the future. So far he has killed King Duncan, and Banquo. Macbeth is now nearly overthrown and dominated at the thought of keeping and protecting his throne. This is the reason why he visits them. He wants to see how long he will keep his throne for. He has arranged to meet the witches in a cave. Before you see Macbeth in this scene, you see a gang of witches inside around a cauldron. This is when the scene opens. All the witches are creating a potion in preparation for Macbeth’s arrival. This would be the scene that really caught the audiences attention. This would be the first time ever that they see witches creating a potion on stage. Now days this would just be a cliché of the witch image. All of the ingredients would be the sort of thing that we think of when we think of witches e.g. Fillet of Fenny snake, eye of newt. But when the play was written this would be language that Shakespeare had to imagine with deep thought. It must have really fascinated audiences back then. When the witches are making this potion, they chant as they add the ingredients. They chant in rhyming couplets and in iambic pentameter. This makes an excellent effect if you’re watching the play because you can really listen to it and understand it really well. They almost do it like a song. They have one witch say the ingredients that they are adding, then when they have finished adding the ingredients, the whole gang of witches says 2 lines to mix the ingredients added. They do this three times and then Hecate enters followed by Macbeth. When Macbeth talks to the witches in this scene, he seems to be more like Banquo was in Act one scene three. Macbeth shows this by beeing more aggressive in the way that he speaks to them, “How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!”4:1:48. This shows that Macbeths character has been changed since he met the witches. He is now like a tyrant and throwing his authority around, even to the witches.
Macbeth asks if they can predict his future. The way that it is set out is in three apparitions. These show Macbeth what will happen to him. To get the apparitions the witches have to create another spell so that Macbeth can see them. Again the witches add their ingredients into the cauldron and say their spell. In between each apparition Macbeth asks the witches a question and then they will answer. I think that they do this so that the audience will be able to understand the apparitions better.
The first apparition is to beware of Macduff. The second apparition is no man born from a woman shall harm Macbeth. And the third apparition is Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him.
After the apparitions are told Macbeth becomes relieved and thinks that no-one can take his throne. Macbeth then asks if Banquos issue should ever rule scotland. The witches do actually refuse to show him. This shows that the witches do actually care a bit for Macbeth. But he insists and they show him. Towards the end of the play when the apparitions come true, Macbeth feels as if he has been tricked by the witches and seems to be shocked that these seemingly impossible ideas are happening. ”Accursed be that tongue that tells me so.” 5:8:17.
Just before the witches leave, they do a dance and then they vanish with Hecate. Hecate is the goddess and the queen of the witches.
Hecate appears in act three scene five. This scene probably was not written by Shakespeare but added because the audience liked to see the witches.
The conclusion to my essay is that, because Macbeth met the witches upon the heath, that event changed the fate for many characters in the play.
