The Witches

• Explode the quote, "By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes."

  ¬ witches’ observation about Macbeth’s wickedness signposts his descent into evil for the audience

  ¬rhyming couplets and use of trochaic tetrameter for the witches' speech suggests their supernatural difference

  ¬use of assonance and superstitious references in this couplet also reinforces their supernatural wickedness

  ¬Given that contextually, witches are referred to as the epiphany of evil, the use of the word 'wicked' displays a sense of irony, and emphasises Macbeths evil nature at this point in the play

  ¬materialisation of Macbeth through the word 'something' suggests to the audience that Macbeth is so immoral he's made out to be inhuman
• Explode the quote, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair. Hover through the fog and filthy air."

  ¬repetitive "f" sounds aggressive and conveys the violence of the witches desires.

  ¬becoming king would've been "fair" if he'd waited, but he was impatient and ambitious so he made it "foul"

  ¬ CONTEXT: The King at the time, James I, wrote a book stating all magic was evil - this chant sounds almost like a magical spell, and the audience would fear it.

  ¬repetition of "fair" and "foul" suggests the two ideas are interchangeable, emphasised further by the definite "is".

  ¬imagery reinforces the idea of a distorted reality. The fog and filthy air symbolize a world where truth is obscured, and the characters struggle to see clearly.
• Example thesis

  In ‘Macbeth’, the supernatural acts as a catalyst in Macbeth’s tragic fall from grace and is a vital component of the plot. The supernatural appears in many forms: the witches, Banquo ‘s ghost, and the four apparitions and serves as a manifestation of evil temptation that seduces Macbeth in to murdering his comrades. Shakespeare may have chosen to use the supernatural metaphorically to draw an audience to the fatal flaws of humanity: hubris, ignorance, and duplicity.