Macbeth - Do the witches heighten the dramatic impact of the play?
Amandeep Ghuman
MACBETH COURSEWORK 1
The inclusion of witches in Macbeth heightens the dramatic impact of the play because in the time William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth many of the general public did not know to much about witches, so when witches were included in Macbeth many people were shocked which made the play more dramatic because many people did not expect witches to be included in the play. Also witches in Shakespeare's time were treated very poorly In some cases witches were pricked with a special needle to see if they were immune from pain so these type of cases heighten the dramatic impact of the play because the general public knew how witches were treated and how powerful they were.
The introduction of witches at this time was particularly dramatic because people knew how vicious they were because at that time pamphlets were put on sale describing the lurid details of witchcraft trials, so people knew how vile witches were. This made it particularly dramatic because witches were really the centre of attention at that time as convicted witches were being executed so putting witches in a play would have been very dramatic. In the text "witches and witchcraft" it says "Witches could predict the future, fly, sail in sieves, bring on night in daytime, causes fogs and tempests, and kill animals". This shows introducing witches at this time would have been massively dramatic because there were people who would have been appalled to see witches in a play because of all the attention that was on witches at that time and what people knew about which was that they were mighty women who had the power to do anything. Witches had never been used in a play before Macbeth so this defiantly increased the dramatic impact of the play because no one had ever witnessed witches in a play and how they were perceived as or how witches acted like so people must have been very intrigued to know how evil these witches which increased the dramatic impact of the play.
Witches and witchcraft are generally viewed with humour today, not many people today believe that witches exist and if someone would mention anything about witches or witchcraft, many of the general public wouldn't pay to much attention to what that person has to say. Today witches and witchcraft are viewed as a fable or a myth because people today are not as inept as people were in the time Macbeth was first performed, also there is not a lot of media attention on witches and witchcraft as there was in Macbeth's time. The views defiantly differ from those held at the time Macbeth was first performed because the most of the general public do not believe in witches or witchcraft today but in at the time Macbeth was first performed, many of the general public believed in witches and witchcraft because in Macbeth's time there was a lot of attention on witches, in the text "witches and witchcraft" it says "pamphlets describing the lurid details of witchcraft trials were printed. They enjoyed enormous sales". This shows that a lot of people knew about the lurid actions of witches as the pamphlets enjoyed enormous sales, so if many people believed in witches at that time, witches in the play would have been very dramatic. So the views on witches today defiantly differ from the views of people in Macbeth's time because of the attention on witches at that time. I think that the general views of witches and witchcraft today does change the dramatic impact of the play because no one will actually be surprised to see witches in a production because many television shows, plays, films and books has featured witches or some sort of witchcraft since Macbeth was first performed, so not many people today will find it dramatic to see witches in Macbeth they will probably find it quite common and not at all dramatic.
The witches first appear right at the beginning of the play in the first act and in the first scene of the play, this heightens the dramatic impact of the play because introducing them into the play makes the watching audience realise that the witches will be a massive influence in the play and a very integral part as well in the play. In act one scene one the first witch says "there to meet Macbeth". This shows that the witches are going to have an important role to play in this play because the watching audience know ...
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The witches first appear right at the beginning of the play in the first act and in the first scene of the play, this heightens the dramatic impact of the play because introducing them into the play makes the watching audience realise that the witches will be a massive influence in the play and a very integral part as well in the play. In act one scene one the first witch says "there to meet Macbeth". This shows that the witches are going to have an important role to play in this play because the watching audience know that Macbeth is a very vital character in the play, so when the witch says "there to meet Macbeth" this heightens the dramatic impact of the play because it shows the watching audience that the witches are going to influence a lot of thing in this play and it also shows that the watching audience will see the witches again in the play. When the witches are introduced their appearance is very hideous, the witches have a typical witch look to them, with beards, moustaches, skinny lips, with withered skins, choppy fingers and with a wild attire. When Banquo says "that look not like the inhabitants of the earth". This shows that the witches look is very revolting and it shows that the witches' appearance is not ordinary. Shakespeare chooses to represent the witches in a very repulsive way which would make the audience feel very sick; Shakespeare chooses to represent them in this way because the witches are an evil character in the play so giving them a hideous look gives them the extra character realism and also with the witches' appearance this ugly, the watching audience will see how devilish the witches are. The way the other characters talk about the witches shows how ugly the witches are, when Banquo says "that look not like the inhabitants of the earth" and also when he says "can the devil speak true". This shows how the other characters find the witches appearance as very devilish and an appearance not from this world. This would heighten the dramatic impact of the play because the way the other characters talk about the witches is that it causes conflict in the play and when the watching audience hear the other characters talking about how devilish the witches look like this makes it dramatic because its causing conflict and its moving on their already idea of the witches having an appearance similar to the devil because at those times witches were centre of attention, so the way the other characters talk about the witches is reflecting the way the general public are thinking about the witches, so therefore the characters in the play are having the same thoughts that the general public are having in real life at Macbeth's time.
When the witches first appear the setting is very dull and gloomy with thunder and lightning. This creates more drama because with thunder and lightning theirs more tension created around the witches and it also gives the setting a wickedness feel about it. The setting also makes the witches look more evil, because you always associate thunder and lightning with evil things so when the witches first appear it constructs that these are destructive witches who are going to do evil things in the play. Also beginning the play with thunder and lightning builds the play up to be very dramatic, so starting of with thunder and lightning gives the watching audience an indication of what's to come in the rest of the play and it also builds the witches character for the play giving the watching audience another indication of how the witches are going to behave like in the rest of the play, which is constructing evil things.
The witches say all sort of things to each other in the scenes they are in, for example in act one, scene 1 they are all saying to each other when and where they will be meeting Macbeth to foretell his future. In act one, scene three they are saying to each other how they will foretell Macbeth's future and all of them are just preparing themselves to talk to Macbeth and are just counting down until Macbeth comes for example when the third witch says "a drum! A drum! Macbeth doth come". This showing that she is counting down for Macbeth's arrival. When they talk to the other characters in the play they mainly talk to Macbeth and Banquo on the heath in act one, scene three and mostly what they have to said to Macbeth and Banquo is foretelling Macbeth's future, for example when they say, "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 hereafter". The witches do not speak about pleasant subjects when ever they speak they do not have pleasant content in them, for example in act four, scene one the second witch says " fillet of a fenny snake, in the cauldron boil and bake, eye of a newt and toe of a frog, wool of a bat and tongue of a dog". This example shows that the witches do not talk about pleasant subjects and that the content of their dialogue is very revolting. The witches mainly speak about Macbeth and how they are going to deal with him. For example, in act one, scene one the third witch says "there to meet Macbeth". Then in act one, scene three they meet Macbeth and that's where they foretell his future about him becoming king. This makes it more dramatic because what the witches talk about is a very integral part of the play and when they speak you know that what ever they are saying is very important to the play, when they foretell Macbeth's future this makes it very dramatic because Macbeth doesn't initially believe them, so when Macbeth does become King it becomes very dramatic because the witches were the ones who foretell his future.
The way the witches speak is very interesting because in most of their dialogue they speak in rhyming couplets. In most of all their dialogue they rhyme what they are saying, this is very effective because it gets their point across more and it also enhances the dramatic impact of the play. For example, In act one, scene three when all the witches repeat the same sentence to every prediction by saying "All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee" to each prediction of him being Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and Macbeth being king. Another example is again in act one, scene three when every single witch says hail to Macbeth so it's not only one witch that says hail every witch in order says hail. Both of these phrases by the witches are great examples of the witches repeating key words. Compared to other characters the rhythm in which they speak is totally different because they rhyme most of what they are saying, for example in act one, scene one all of the witches say "fair is foul, and foul is fair, hover through the fog and filthy air", and then in act one, scene three all the witches again rhyme by saying "the weird sisters, hand in hand, posters of the sea and land". Both of these examples show the way the witches rhyme in their dialogue. The reason why the witches speak like this is because witches in making spells always for spells to work they have to have some sort of rhyme to make the spell work, so that's why the witches speak by rhyming their words because of how witches rhyme to make their spells work. A great example of a rhyming spell is the classic spell, which was said in act 4, scene one when the second witch says " fillet of a fenny snake, in the cauldron boil and bake, eye of a newt and toe of a frog, wool of a bat and tongue of a dog". I think the witches language does heighten the dramatic impact of the play because I don't think no one had ever really heard anybody rhyme what ever they are saying, so at the time Macbeth was first performed the watching audience would have been quietly surprised to hear witches rhyming what they are saying because at that time people didn't know to much of about witches rhyming their spells so they would have been surprised to hear them rhyming what they are saying.
When the witches first appear in the play the image that is connected with them is a very evil and destructive image because when they first appear the setting is very dull and gloomy with thunder and lightning, and this setting connects with how the witches will behave like in the rest of the play because of the first image we get of them as very evil witches. We get this image of them as evil and destructive witches because of the thunder and lightning when they first appear. This adds to the dramatic impact of the play because the first image we get of the witches as being evil and destructive gives the watching audience an idea of how evil and destructive the witches will be in the rest of the play, so this is how the first image we get of the witches adds to the dramatic impact of the play. The impact on the play by using animal imagery used in act four, scene one is that it creates a image in our minds of all these animals going into a cauldron and how disgusting and revolting that is. The impact on the play is that anyone who is watching the play will be feeling very sick inside hearing these things like "eye of a newt" and "toe of a frog", so the animal imagery creates a feeling of sickness and disgust on the watching audience. If the animals were really being boiled and baked it makes the watching audience think what the animals would be going through and makes us feel a bit sorry for the animals and creates an atmosphere of tension and horror at the witches. This animal imagery makes a great dramatic impact on the play because it puts a very revolting picture in our minds of animals begin baked and boiled in a cauldron. Certain animals are mentioned by the witches in order for the witches to get a rhyme going, so when the witches say "toe of a frog and tongue of a dog", these animals are used because frog and dog rhyme, so in order for the spell to work the spell has to rhyme so that's why certain animals are used. The animals represent a spell used by the witches, so all the animal imagery used in act one, scene four represent all these animals going into a cauldron and getting boiled and baked.
In conclusion, I think the witches do heighten the dramatic impact of the play because at that time witches were portrayed very heavily in the local press so putting witches in a play at that time would have been very dramatic because of the attention that was on witches and the consequences of a woman being convicted as a witch at the time Macbeth was first performed. I think that the inclusion of witches in Macbeth does not really heighten the dramatic impact of the play for today's audience because most of the general public today are not as fickle as people in Macbeth's time and because not many people today believe in witches or witchcraft, so witches in Macbeth would not really make Macbeth more dramatic on today's audience. Also since Macbeth wad first performed, many television programmes, films and plays have included witches in their production so today's audience wouldn't really feel that surprised to see witches in Macbeth, so therefore not heightening the dramatic impact of the play.
