What they are doing is digging a circle in the sand; this seems something to do with a coven because most ritual ceremonies are performed in circles. We are surprised to see this in the play because it does not happen in the text, and after digging the circle and hollowing it out, they start to take things out of their bags and they take out a hand, which I think represents Macbeths hand and they are casting a spell to make Macbeth to do evil, also a hangman’s noose, which I think symbolises the thane of Cawdor who was hung;
“No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive our bosom interest, go pronounce his current death and with his former title greet Macbeth.”
And finally a dagger, which I believe is symbolising the dagger that is used to kill Duncan;
“Is this a dagger I see before me?”
Then they cover the hole up and pour blood out onto where they had buried the objects;
“For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-distaining Fortune, with his brandished steel which smoked with bloody execution.”
And I think that this symbolises the blood that is being spilt at the minute at the war and that is about to be spilt during the course of the play, then they all spit onto the blood and this is to seal the spell with their own spittle.
After they finish digging and said their:
“Where shall we three meet again?”
speech they walk off into the mist and disappear but the Younger witch and the middle aged witch left together and the elder witch left separately and I think that this is because maybe the youngest witch is an apprentice and
She has to stay with the middle aged witch because she is only learning her way in the Dark arts.
This version just does not work very well for me, because when I watched this version I laughed when the witches spat on the blood and this version just seemed too stereotypical for my liking.
In the Royal Shakespeare Company version of “Macbeth” they start off with a dark room and with a circle of light. The entire cast walks in front of the lights, creating a dark, shadowy effect and then they take a step sideways and sit down on the stools that are positioned around the circle. They are all sitting in a circle because they are all a part of the story and they all go together to make a circle/story.
Then when the camera has introduced all of the characters it zooms out and then the witches walk into the centre of the circle but you can’t see what they are doing. They are sitting beside each other working with something on the ground and the three of them look to the sky and scream and then there was lightning. This I think is better because it leaves you wondering what they are doing and I think that it is better than Polanski’s version in that respect.
Then they start to scream and look up to the sky and this makes you think that it is what they were doing and while they are looking to the sky they start to talk as if someone in the sky was telling them what was going to happen and who they were to meet;
“There to meet with Macbeth.”
Their costumes were still very rugged and very wild but the witches appearances were not the same in both of the performances because in Nunn’s version there are two youngish witches and the one that was about ten years older. She seemed to be controlling the things that were going on within the spell and she was directing the other two witches as to what to do.
This version, for me works better than Polanski’s version because their make-up is not as over the top and I think that Nunn’s version is the better of the two at presenting the witches because I think that Polanski’s version is too stereotypical.
So, in conclusion both productions have very different perceptions of the witches. They are both very effective and convincing as to the power of the witches. Neither of them is better than each other but they are both very effective and different ideas of how to present this great play.
