The witches are awaiting the arrival of Macbeth on their third appearance. They are preparing a cauldron so that Macbeth will see the apparitions. The ingredients are sinister “Poisoned Entrails”, “Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights hast thirty-one” this means that they have taken a toad who has spent a month under a stone which was very cold. “Eye of newt”, “Toe of frog”, “Wool of bat”, “Tongue of dog” and “Adders fork” (an adders fork was the tongue of an adder which was shaped into the prongs of a fork). But one key thing about the witches is that they give in one line they talk about the political ethics of the time. They say in the ingredients “Nose of Turk, and Tartar’s lips”. These people were noted By the Jacobean’s for their cruelty. So this shows how the witches used ingredients, which were very strange and abnormal or hated. Then when Macbeth is due to arrive “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes” Pricking thumbs or pins and needles in those days was an omen of evil. The witches talk about adding, “Sow’s blood, that hath eaten her nine farrow” and “grease that’s sweaten from the murder’s gibbet, throw into the flame”. These are all evil things because you cannot imagine a sow eating all of her piglets. The first apparition says “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth”, this is said three times could this be the witches speaking on behalf on of the apparition or them speaking to fool Macbeth. At the end of this scene they disappear and we do not see them again for the rest of the play. This is adding to the dramatic significance because it is very mysterious and can be interpreted as the witches just playing out a funny story with real people, which ends up in death and destruction.
One of the contributing issues to the dramatic significance of the witches is how they contribute to the mood and the atmosphere of the play. They contribute to the mood in the first scene by being scary and talking in riddles to confuse the audience the audience are generally scared when they are confused because they get easily paranoid. In the second scene that we see them (Act 1, Scene 3) the witches add a brand new fear to the text, the fear that the witches can foresee the future. This is scary because the audience will think that since the witches can foresee the future they may be able to edit it. In the last scene where Macbeth visit’s the ‘Pit of Acheron’ there is yet again thunder; this is a continuous pattern with the witches because the play is conveying them as being very scary old hags. When we meet them they are hanging around a cauldron, which is normally associated with witchcraft. They talk about evil things and people of the times for instance they add “the liver of blaspheming Jew”. This once again shows us how Shakespeare reflects the politics of the time through his plays. So the witches talk of scary thing to scare the audience and reflect the politics of the time.
We can see that the witches have some control over his actions because the normally loyal warrior we see at the start of the play turns into a “dead butcher” according to Malcolm. We can assume that the witches have some effect over Macbeth because when he goes to commit the murder of Duncan and he sees a dagger that is bloodied pointing him in the direction of Duncan chamber where he will commit the murder. Macbeth states, “Is this a dagger I see before me, the handle towards my hand?” This (added to the turmoil we see Macbeth go through earlier) makes it very believable that he is indeed seeing this dagger floating in front of him. The witches could have also influenced his action later on by making him very cocky and headstrong where they call on the “apparitions” to show Macbeth what will happen to him. The only reason, really for someone to believe that the apparitions are actually the witches is that the first apparition says “Macbeth, Macbeth, Macbeth, beware Macduff;” The one thing that stands out about that quotation is that the apparition greets Macbeth via saying his name in three’s. The witches are generally associated with three’s in this play because they all say in their second appearance “All hail Macbeth…” So we can probably have a good idea that the witches are actually controlling what the apparitions say to Macbeth. Thusly controlling his actions. Through the apparitions they make Macbeth extra cocky by saying that Macbeth will never be killed by a man born of woman also that he will not be beaten until “Great Birnam wood moves to high Dunsinane hill”. This makes Macbeth believe that he is unbeatable but that is probably part of his undoing. One other thing that the audience can presume is that the murder of Banquo is caused by the witches because we see that Macbeth is angry that he had murdered Duncan all for the benefit of Banquo’s descendants. Therefore, Macbeth decides to hire two murderers to kill Banquo. This is extremely unusual because Macbeth was Banquo’s battle partner & friend. So these are unusual actions for Macbeth so we can conclude from these that in someway the witches are influencing Macbeth’s actions. This is exceptionally scary because the witches can change the course of people actions.
A few of the key themes of the play MACBETH are that of evil and the supernatural & witchcraft the witches fit right into to this theme. They obviously connect to the supernatural theme because they talk to Hecate although these scenes are controversially thought not to be written by Shakespeare because the prose and rhythm is incorrect. But the scenes that the witches are in are generally written in a very spooky atmosphere. So this once again makes it very scary. Witchcraft was an extremely large concern in Shakespeare’s time. Many laws were passed to try and stop witchcraft. So to attract attention to his play Shakespeare added the character of the 3 witches to his play. So the witches link into the theme of witchcraft in the play MACBETH. Another theme the witch’s link into is the theme of the supernatural. Supernatural is a term usually reserved for people with powers beyond human and normal understanding. In this case the witches supernatural powers are the abilities to look into the future and change it’s course. So these can be regarded as supernatural powers. The witches practise these supernatural powers and witchcraft in isolated places such as “upon the heath”. This is presumably because if they’de been caught then they would have probably been burnt at the stake since at the times any people caught practising witchcraft were killed off by being burnt at the stake.
In the play MACBETH there is a big similarity between the witches and Lady Macbeth. For instance the witches fill Macbeth head full of thoughts of him becoming king by saying “All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter”. Then Lady Macbeth makes sure that Macbeth will not back out of the scheme behind Duncan’s murder by suggesting a plan. So we can see that the witches and Lady Macbeth want to and become king of Scotland. Also later on in Act 1 scene 5 after Lady Macbeth has discovered about the predictions she calls the evil spirits out to ‘unsex’ her and fill her “from the crown to crown to the top full of direst cruelty”. She says this in the hope that the spirits will make her ruthless and have the courage to murder Duncan. The witches will later called on the evil spirits to show Macbeth the apparitions. So Lady Macbeth and the witches have a lot in common they all call on the evil spirit’s at one time or another in the play MACBETH.
Shakespeare might of set out writing MACBETH intending to show the audience his view on women. He does this by showing how women are evil, two faced, double-crossing and horrible freaks. Although this is only one man’s view of women in a time when women where made to stay at home and work. So in conclusion to the question in conclusion to the question “what is the dramatic significance of the witches in the play MACBETH” The dramatic significance of the witches is to show the power and fear of people with supernatural powers at Shakespeare time. Also they have to scare the audience by being spooky and mysterious. Also to show that he thought women where ugly beasts who were evil and on top of that he shows us all women are the same by making Lady Macbeth and the witches act in the same ways so the witches dramatic significance is a big chunk of the play MACBETH.