The Role of the Witches in Macbeth

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THE ROLE OF THE WITCHES IN MACBETH

Since Macbeth was first performed almost four hundred years ago, the three Witches have been portrayed in numerous ways on the stage and, over the last hundred years, on the screen.  But the Witches have remained, in all their various guises, one of the most powerful elements in the play and one of the most powerful instruments for affecting audiences.  One of the reasons for this is that Man throughout the ages has been fascinated by the supernatural, and this was especially true in Elizabethan England.  The Witches are able to unsettle audiences by the way in which they are portrayed on the stage and by their use of language, particularly their descriptions of the evil deeds they perpetrate, which are delivered in an incantational style. But the main role of the Witches in this play is the part they play in the tragic downfall of Macbeth.  The extent to which he is a victim of the Witches’ evil is an essential part of the drama of his fall from grace.

At the time Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, England was very different from the England in which we live today.  Religion was much more important in the lives of people than it is now, and the Church of England was highly influential in the running of the country.  The Church at this time was encouraging the burning of thousands of women for “witchcraft” and “heresy”.  The people were taught that witches were responsible for everything that went wrong in their lives, such as poor harvests and diseases, and with little of the scientific knowledge that we have today and with no other education available, they believed the Church and consequently viewed witches as evil.  Today, “witches” are not acknowledged to be evil or even real, so it is difficult for actors to get across the evil nature of the Witches to audiences.  For this reason, we should not judge Macbeth by our own time, but by the time in which Shakespeare wrote it.

The way the Witches are portrayed as well as when and where they appear are very important.  The very first scene features the Witches alone on a heath in thunder and lightning.  That the play begins with the Witches is significant, as it tells us that the evil of the Witches will be evident throughout and influence the conclusion of the play.  The only places we see the Witches in the course of the play are the barren heath and the mysterious dark cave.  A heath cannot be farmed and only shrubs can grow on it and this meeting of the Witches on infertile land suggests that they are responsible for the arid land, and so establishes their evil characters.  The dark cave seems to be a more permanent residence for the Witches and the fact that they live here with bats and other “evil” animals further hints at their evil nature. The Witches prefer inhospitable conditions and meet in “thunder, lightning or in rain” which further demonstrates their malevolence.

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The Witches show they are evil both when they make their heathen brews and when they give accounts of what they have done in a day.  The Witches make references throughout the play to their “familiar spirits”.  These are demons that have taken the form of animals, and are supposed to assist witches in performing their evil deeds.  At the end of Act 1 Scene 1, after their meeting on the heath, the Witches are called away by “Graymalkin” (grey little Mary) and “Paddock”.  Graymalkin is the Witches’ cat and a paddock is a toad. As the Witches wait ...

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