Roman Polanski's Interpretation of Shakespeare's Presentation of the witches in act 1 scene 1 and scene 3 of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

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Mark Donnelly 11C

Roman Polanski’s Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Presentation of the witches in act 1 scene 1 and scene 3 of Macbeth by William Shakespeare.

Act 1 Scene 1

In Shakespeare’s  scene the witches are presented in an open place, this creates a sense of mystery as to why an open place was chosen and already the audience are beginning to ask questions about these witches. The thunder and lightning in the background adds to the tension that has already been built up by the witches. I think that Shakespeare did this on purpose because when there was thunder and lightning it was associated with bad goings on.

In the first four lines of the play the witches are talking in rhymes, this adds to the incantatory effect that that the witches are casting a spell and that they are all over a cauldron or a fire of some sort. When thy ask when they shall meet again and they only mention bad weather as options e.g. thunder, lightning or in rain (Act1, Sc,1,L1-2), this shows that they have the ability to control the weather and meet in any kind of weather that they want.

The next thing that the witches talk about is “when the hurly-burly’s done when the battle’s lost and won.” Now the audience begin to ask questions like what battle and who lost and who won. And again Shakespeare deliberately put this in to get the audience asking questions. When the witches start to make predictions about a battle, this shows the power that they have to predict the future and see how it will turn out. They now begin to communicate with the audience and spark the audience’s curiosity with questions about the hurly-burly and most importantly Macbeth. When they ask when they shall meet with Macbeth. “There to meet with Macbeth”. The supernatural element is intensified when they are called away by an evil spirit in the form of animals.

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“Fair is foul and foul is fair:” this refers to an in version of values, evil to them is good and good is evil. So the witches mission is to turn every-thing on it’s head and turn good to evil. This could also be the reason why they choose Macbeth because he was good and this was the start of their mission.

When they say “Fair if foul and foul is fair” the iambic pentameter is set in reverse mode, the inverted pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables reflects the inverted mission to perceive evil as good and good as ...

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