Macbeth goes into silence when he hears the news that he is to become Thane of Cawdor and then King, Banquo does all the talking, he can not understand why Macbeth looks so fearful. Because Macbeth has just had the victory of winning a battle these ideas do not sound so mad. When the witches are speaking they have precise timing for effect. After Banquo has questioned the witches they begin to use contrasting words again, ‘Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.’ ‘Not so happy, yet much happier.’ This would be confusing Macbeth and made him think that Banquo was about to become a rival perhaps of greater importance, this might cause him to question their friendship. It might have made him jealous. When Macbeth begins to come out of his daydream he really wants to know more, how and why? The witches then vanish. Through this scene the witches are there to confuse and scare. The audience would have been wondering why Macbeth and Banquo weren't scared? Had the witches possessed them already? The witches were unnaturally close to Macbeth and seemed to work with one mind with him. Had the thoughts of becoming King already crossed Macbeths’ mind? Afterwards Banquo seems more focused; perhaps this is showing Macbeth gets lead easily. When the first prophecy comes true Macbeth doesn’t doubt the witches at all. They have done what they had to, gain Macbeths’ trust. From now on Macbeth is under their spell.
Even though Lady Macbeth never meets the witches they still have some power over her. When she receives the letter from Macbeth she is the one that persuades him that to become king he will have to kill. Lady Macbeth appears to have evil in her already. The audience might wonder if she has met the witches before or if she has been possessed by evil spirits. When the time comes to kill King Duncan both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have to call upon the powers of darkness to make sure they have enough evil in them and no natural feelings of guilt and horror.
The audience would see how the witches could change someone's personality. At this point in the play Macbeth isn’t completely evil. This means he takes a lot of persuasion before he murders as he still has part of his own mind. When the witches aren’t around, Lady Macbeth is the evil influence.
The witches affect Banquo in a different way to Macbeth. Banquo is scared. When Banquo tells Macbeth that he dreamt of the three weird sisters the audience see Macbeth lying, ‘I think not of them.’ We know that the witches have had a bigger affect on him that he is not telling Banquo. The audience might begin to worry for the safety of Banquo as him and Macbeth used to be close and talk together about things such as this.
After speaking to Banquo Macbeth sees an imaginary dagger, he is hallucinating. He wonders if it is telling him to hurry up and murder King Duncan, ‘Thou Marshall’st me the way that I was going, and such an instrument I was to use.’ This is showing Macbeths mind is full of darkness. This is symbolised because it is night time and Macbeth says, ‘Nature seems dead.’ He has decided to kill King Duncan.
In act three scene one Macbeth is convincing two henchmen to kill Banquo the witches have taken over. Macbeth will stop at nothing to become king. Once Banquo has been killed Macbeth and Lady Macbeth still hold a banquet. It is here that the guests get to see clearly that Macbeth has changed. It looks like he has gone crazy but he is having another hallucination. As before Macbeth believes it to be real and starts talking to it. It is Banquos’ ghost and it doesn’t disappear until Macbeth faces up to it. Perhaps this is showing that Macbeth has to face up to the witches. The audience would think Macbeth was totally possessed now and the witches were causing Macbeth to think these evil thoughts.
In the next scene with the witches they are meeting their queen Hecate. The script says the weather was thunder. Meeting the queen and the weather being bad would have been the Jacobeans stereotypical view of witches. When Hecate speaks she doesn’t speak in the normal verse that Shakespeare writes in. Normally he has 5 beats per line (iambic pentameter). This suggests that it was added afterwards or Shakespeare was showing that the witches were different compared to normal people. Hecate believes that the witches should have included her in their scheme. Also Macbeth should be more scared. He has become over confidant.
Macbeths second visit to the witches is voluntary. He seeks more information. He is worried someone is going to take his place as king. It is an admission he isn’t in control anymore. The witches ask, ‘say if th’hadst rather hear from our mouths or from our masters.’ Macbeth believes that the higher ranked you are the more you know so he automatically picked the masters. They come in the form of apparitions. The witches don’t tell Macbeth anything this time it is the apparitions that do the talking. The first tells him to, ‘Beware Macduff.’ The second, ‘None of woman born shall harm Macbeth.’ The last, ‘Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.’ After hearing this you assume Macbeth is going to die. . This is because; if you get told in a play that only one thing is to worry about that thing normally happens. As well as this Macbeth has already admitted weakness by going to revisit the witches. The apparitions are telling Macbeth he is safe. He still plans to kill Macduff because of the first apparition. This indicates it is the witches fault people are getting killed as Macbeth is easily led.
Before Lady Macbeth dies she is heard talking of murders in her sleep. She is going over things that happened. Shakespeare is trying to show that you can’t get away from your actions. The audience would see that once you are under a witches spell you can’t get out of it.
When Lady Macbeth dies Macbeth is emotionless, he no longer cares about the rest of the world. When Macbeth dies the audience sees that the apparition wasn’t telling the whole truth. Macduff was of woman born but through caesarean birth. This might imply that although everyone thinks the witches had power over the play really they were just looking for someone to place the blame onto. Shakespeare was trying to show everyone has responsibility for their actions and can’t blame someone/thing else.