The Significance of the Witches in ‘Macbeth’

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Rachael Bates                                Page

The Significance of the Witches in ‘Macbeth’

At the time ‘Macbeth’ was written witches played an important part in normal life. Everybody feared witches and their powers. Women even had to be scared in case they were accused of being a witch. At the time of Macbeth King James was paranoid about being killed by witches so this paranoia from the King travelled through England. When people went to see the play they would believe that things like the prophecies could actually happen. The audience would watch the play and see Macbeth (and Lady Macbeth) change from loyal subjects to royal murderers. To them this would look like they were being possessed by evil spirits. This may have caused the audience to feel sorry for Macbeth and his wife and their hatred of witches to grow more.

 When the curtains go back the first characters to be seen are the three witches. This signifies their importance over the play as a whole. The witches would have been instantly recognisable; wearing black and being an ugly woman would have meant being accused of being a witch. The witches meet in foul weather, this would have also implied that they were witches as witches were meant to be able to change the weather, bad weather brings evil spirits. If at this time there was the slightest change in the real weather the audience would have become worried. The witches speak of ‘Thunder, lightning or in rain.’ This introduces the play to the audience as a dark and dangerous play that centralises on evil. At the end of the witches first scene they say, ‘Fair is foul and foul is fair.’ Even though these words apparently contradict each other they are the beginnings of one of the plays themes, illusion and reality.

 At the start of act one scene three the witches are bragging to each other about what they can do, ‘In a sieve I'll thither sale, and, like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.’ This is showing the audience the power they have over everything. After this we are shown one of the witches weaknesses, their blindness. The audience are shown this because the witches can’t see Macbeth coming, they hear him. Also just before Macbeth meets the witches for the first time the audience hears him echo the same words as the witches did in the first scene, ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen.’ These words are easier to explain; the day is foul because of the weather, yet the day is fair because he won the battle. After hearing Macbeth repeat the words of the witches the audience would already be associating him with evil. Also they would be questioning whether Macbeth was in control of his own future and destiny. When the witches speak to Macbeth and Banquo for the first time they do not try and explain anything, they just tell them of the prophecies. This shows another of the witches’ weaknesses. They have closed minds, they are petty so will not expand their horizons into anything that is good and may help the human kind.

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 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 ...

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