The witches also bestow evil characteristics in Lady Macbeth. In Act one, Scene five, Lady Macbeth finds out that the witches told her husband predictions of his future and that he is to be Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. This makes Lady Macbeth quite attracted to what the witches said. She desires power – and she’ll do anything to attain it. She states:
That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
And chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round,
Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
To have thee crown’d withal. (1.5; 25-30)
Lady Macbeth wants to help Macbeth become King, fulfilling the prophecies of the witches – which she realizes. The prophecies have tempted her to do whatever to help Macbeth. The enticement of the witches leads to Lady Macbeth’s or ambition. She desires this so much that she summons evil spirits to take over her body so she will be able to do anything and everything she can to fulfill the prophecy, to help her husband to become King of Scotland – which would make her powerful. She asks:
… Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to the toe, top-full
Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
The effect and it! Come to my woman’s breasts,
And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief! Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, “Hold, hold!” (1.5; 43-57)
Lady Macbeth asks evil spirits to help her succeed. The ambition to fulfill the prophecies makes Lady Macbeth do anything, even if it is evil or might hurt her. When she finally figured a plan to help her husband become King, she did everything she could to help. She planned the regicide of King Duncan and convinced herself and her husband, Macbeth, that this was the only way. “O, never / Shall sun that morrow see!” (1.5; 67-68) she says to Macbeth. She informs him that when Duncan comes for the night, he will never awake to see the morning. She is affirming to Macbeth that they shall kill the king. The witches bring out evil attributes in Lady Macbeth, such as enticement, desire and murder. All of this occurred because of the witches’ predictions for her husband.
The witches bring out wicked characteristics in Macbeth. As soon as the witches told him the prophecies of him being Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor and King, Macbeth was tempted to do anything he could to fulfill those prophecies. He knew, by the death of his father, that he was already Thane of Glamis. When Macbeth and Banquo come across Ross and Angus, two Scottish noblemen, they greet him and tell him that the King – Duncan – has appointed Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor. Realizing that two of his prophecies have come true Macbeth wonders if the last one will be fulfilled. As he wonders of being King, he thinks about how he can meet the third prophecy. He thinks immediately of killing the King. Macbeth then realizes what he is thinking and is appalled: “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair” (1.2; 144-145). Macbeth had a mental image of killing the King. Repelled by his own thoughts, he wonders why he should kill the King if he is supposed to become king by nature. Lady Macbeth encouraged Macbeth to fulfill the prophecy by himself, so less time will be wasted on waiting for events to happen naturally. Macbeth agrees and kills King Duncan. After killing the King he feels more at ease when he decides to kill his best friend, Banquo. He states to Lady Macbeth: “Strange things I have in head that will to hand, / Which must be acted ere they be scann’d.”(3.4; 170-171). He will do without reflection whatever comes to his mind, he is acting on impulse: being spontaneous – just so he can have the most power. In his ambition for the latter he has killed many of his friends or his friends’ family: scared that he will be over-thrown. Macbeth killed Duncan, Banquo and Macduff’s wife and children, yet it seems as though he has no remorse for what he has done. When the murderers come back from having killed Banquo, Macbeth’s best friend, Macbeth seems ruthless. He asks whose blood is on the murderer’s face, when answered that it is Banquo’s, Macbeth says: “’Tis better thee without, than he within. / Is he dispatched?” (3.4; 16-17). Macbeth is telling the murderer that the blood is better out than in, and asks, quite bluntly, if Banquo, his best friend, is dead. Not a sign of Macbeth being mournful or miserable of his death. Macbeth’s murders were performed to ensure that he stayed on the throne – that he would have the most power. The witches exposed immoral attributes in Macbeth, such as temptation, spontaneity and remorselessness.
Without a doubt, the witches exposed evil traits in Banquo, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Influenced, mostly, by the witches’ prophecies and their ambition to fulfill them, Banquo, Macbeth and his wife were led to their downfalls. Shakespeare created the witches to be antagonists in the play, appealing to King James I for he thought they were pure evil. In today’s society, witches are thought to look more or less like the three “weird sisters”. A television series “Charmed” is based upon three witches – they are the protagonists, looking more like normal humans, who conquer evil instead of creating it. They are the opposite of the “weird sisters”. Although the witches were seen acted in Macbeth’s play it may be speculated that the witches do not exist and were only a figment of Macbeth’s imagination.