William Shakespeare Macbeth
William Shakespeare - Macbeth
Examine the witches' scenes. Comment on the language they use and their presentation in the play.
Awarded: Grade 7
The three witches are some of the few female characters in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Though they have fairly small roles, they are nonetheless very important to the play. If the witches didn't exist, Duncan perhaps wouldn't have been killed and the whole play of Macbeth would have been for naught. The witches are characters quite different from any other characters in the play and Shakespeare goes through great effort to portray them as mystic and "weird" creatures, through both their language and their presentation in the scenes that they appear.
The witches open the play of Macbeth, in act 1, scene 1. Though their opening scene is short, it creates a feeling of suspense and tension. The play starts with the end of the witches' meeting, and they are just arranging their next meeting - "Where shall we three meet again?" - and this makes the reader wonders what had happened before in the meeting, and what will happen later on. Already, even before the witches started to speak, we understand that there is something not quite normal about the three characters on stage, and that they are quite dark and things to be feared, because they appear in "thunder and lightning." The mysterious witches in their dark and gloomy atmosphere set the mood of the play, making the reader aware that the rest of the events to come will be sinister and frightening.
The First Witch asks, "When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain?" This question alone makes the witches appear dark and mysterious, because they do not meet when weather is pleasant, but meet in the darkest, stormiest of weather. Also, the Witch said when shall "we three" meet again. This suggests that they have always been together, never with anyone else and are in a way loners, strange and different from all other people. The dialogue between the witches in this scene is purposefully vague, creating an air of mystery and curiosity. Had we been watching the play, and did not have the script to inform us that these three women were witches, perhaps we would not have known them to be witches, because no where in their conversation do they say who they were. We
only guess about their identities through things they say. The Third Witch predicts that the battle will be "lost, and won" "ere the set of sun." From this prediction, we realise that somehow these women had knowledge of things that had not happen yet, and this perhaps, is our first clue to their true identities as witches - they are able to see the future. The witches are then called away by their attendant spirits of devils in animal shapes, such as the grey cat Graymalkin and the toad, into the "fog and filthy air." The witches being ...
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only guess about their identities through things they say. The Third Witch predicts that the battle will be "lost, and won" "ere the set of sun." From this prediction, we realise that somehow these women had knowledge of things that had not happen yet, and this perhaps, is our first clue to their true identities as witches - they are able to see the future. The witches are then called away by their attendant spirits of devils in animal shapes, such as the grey cat Graymalkin and the toad, into the "fog and filthy air." The witches being called by "Graymalkin" and "paddock" is the real clue to their magic and identity.
The witches' last lines are spoken by all three in unison. The line "Fair is foul and foul is fair, Hover through the fog ad filthy air" is almost like the climax of the scene, and creates suspense and expectancy within the reader. The use of the word "hover" is especially effective, as things had just started. The witches' scene creates just enough to get our curiosity up and hovering, but not satisfy it. The last two lines are like predictions themselves. The line "Fair is foul and foul is fair" is a palindrome and is almost like an oxymoron and this is like one of the witches' prophecies, because later on in the play Macbeth will be caught in a conflict of feelings, that of wanting to be king, and that of not wanting to kill the king. The "fog and filthy air" suggests that "filthy" things are to happen, and the "fog" is a crystal ball, in which the witches see visions of the future.
We see the witches next in act 1, scene 3. In this scene, the witches have their meeting that was arranged in scene 1 with Macbeth. Once again, the setting is a deserted heath, with "thunder." In this scene, we get a full view of the witches' power and malice. While they wait for Macbeth, they share tales of what they have been doing. It seems since we saw them last, they have been doing nothing
but harm. The First Witch tells a story of her wrecking a ship just because the captain's wife didn't give her some chestnut. There are examples of repetition in the First Witch's story: "A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap And munch'd, and munch'd, and munch'd," and "And like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do." These parts of the story are repeated three times. Three to the witches is a significant number, for there are three of them, and three is the number of the unity of life: air, water and fire, some of the elements which are invaluable to the witches' magical work.
We learn from the First Witch's story that the witches control the winds, for the Second and Third Witches offer the First their winds in her revenge of the sailor - "I'll give thee a wind", "And I another." The witches are powerful, but they are not all mighty, we learn in lines 23-24. "Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd." The witches do not have supreme powers. They are capable of harming people, making prophecies, drain people "dry as hay", but not kill them. In addition to this,
the witches are not invincible, the sole performers of their art, but they also have a queen, a goddess
of witchcraft - Hecate. Hecate appears briefly in Act 3, scene 5, and her purpose, it seems, is only to have the First Witch to say:" Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again," giving the impression that the witches fear her greatly.
Though despite their lack of certain powers, the witches are nonetheless cruel and nasty. The First Witch places punishments on the sailor, only because his wife did not give her chestnuts, and such cruel punishments they are too. "Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid; He shall live a man forbid. Weary sennights nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine." They take delight in cursing a man for the simplest of reasons, and this is how Shakespeare's society sees witches, cruel, malicious, and wicked.
The witches' speech before Macbeth and Banquo come in is particularly significant:
The weird sisters, hand in hand, Posters of the sea and land, Thus do go, about, about,
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up nine. Peace, the charm's wound up.
This speech is the incantation of a "charm" and therefore, it has a certain rhythm and rhyme. Along with rhythm, the words of the chant come in threes - "thrice to thine and thrice to mine, and thrice again." Three is, of course, the magical number of unity. Furthermore, "thrice" is repeated three times "to make up nine." A cat is believed to have nine lives, and the black cat is the sure symbol of a witch and magic.
The witches meet Macbeth and Banquo when they just returned from battle. Here, in Banquo's speech from lines 37-45, we see some physical descriptions of the witches. And indeed, we learn that they are very different from normal people - "so wither'd and so wild in their attire That look not like th'inhabitants o'th'earth." The witches have "choppy fingers," "skinny lips," and "should be women,
And yet [their] beards forbid [Banquo] to interpret That [they] are so." This vagueness in their sex makes them appear as even more mysterious and sinister creatures.
Their mysteriousness is magnified by the way they greet Macbeth. They hail him as Thane of Glamis, which he is, Thane of Cawdor, a title he has yet to receive, and "king hereafter." Only the last greeting, "All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter" is truly a prophecy about the future. Macbeth is already Thane of Glamis and Duncan, in the previous scene, had awarded him the title Thane of Cawdor. So the only real prediction the witches are making is the one about Macbeth becoming king. Yet it has to be wondered by did the witches tell Macbeth all this? What is their purpose to meet Macbeth here? If Macbeth's kingship was to happen naturally without interference, if "chance may crown [Macbeth] Without [his] stir," then why did the witches tell him? They could have just not said anything, never meet Macbeth, and let nature run its path. But perhaps the witches want to meet Macbeth to put the idea of kingship in his head, sowing the seed of murder in his, and (more importantly) Lady Macbeth's, mind. This purpose would most suit the witches' nature as evil, wicked creatures. If the witches had not made these prophecies to Macbeth's face, he would not have related them to Lady Macbeth, then maybe, Duncan's death would have been diverted.
The witches' predictions to Banquo was much briefer, and much more ambiguous. They predict him to be "lesser than Macbeth, and greater. Not so happy, yet much happier." These predictions are purposefully vague and are oxymorons, made to confuse. Yet the last prediction is probably one the
most foreshadowing - "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none." This foreshadows the fact that Banquo will not be king, and despite the fact that Macbeth is to be "king hereafter," Banquo's descendents are fated to be kings, yet Macbeth and Banquo are not related. These prophecies made to Banquo serve the purpose of making Banquo a threat to Macbeth, causing Macbeth to have Banquo murdered later on.
After making their very vague predictions, the witches vanish. This increases even more the witches' mysteriousness and the suspense of the situation. But also, the witches' vanishing makes Macbeth wonder if they had been real. Their vanishing raise a question of what is real, and what is not? "Into the air, and what seem'd corporal, Melted, as breath into the wind." What is real, solid, and corporal, by all rules of nature, cannot simply just 'melt' but the witches did, and this is perhaps what really convinced Macbeth that there might be some truth in those predictions - the magic he had just seen the witches capable of.
The last we see of the witches is when they assemble to meet with Macbeth after he had been King, and promise to answer his questions. In act 4, scene 1, we see the witches brewing a potion to call up magical "Apparitions" to make predictions to Macbeth. Through the ingredients they put into the potion, we see how horrific the witches' magic can be, for the potion contains, along with other things,
"eye of newt," "liver of blaspheming Jew," "finger of birth-strangled babe." In this scene, it is really the Apparitions that make predictions for Macbeth, and the witches are there only to brew the potion and give instructions to Macbeth. They give curt instructions, and then vanish.
The witches may have great power, yet it seems they only use their power to create disasters and tragedy. The First Witch wrecks the sailor's ship merely because his wife didn't give her the chestnuts she wanted. Then there is Macbeth. If the witches didn't tell Macbeth of his possibility to be "king hereafter," would the idea of murder have ever entered his and Lady Macbeth's minds? Would Duncan had been killed? It seems that the Witches' purpose in telling Macbeth the prophecy was to sow a seed for the murder. The witches, as Shakespeare portrayed them, are essences of evil, just as society at the time would view them, and add a sense of mystery and unreality to the play.
