Three witches

• Although there is clearly more than one of them, the Witches may be seen as seem as a single character; they are often referred to as "The Weird Sisters".

  Their predictions drive matters forward though they never actually suggest direct action. Rather, they plant ideas in Macbeth's mind and let his ambition do the rest. Many of their predictions are ambiguous.
• The Witches in the play are unlike any other characters due to their physical appearance, style of speech, actions, and apparent ability to predict the future
• The Witches meet around a cauldron, a well-known symbol of witchcraft
• They throw foul and evil objects like 'poisoned entrails' into the cauldron and cast a spell
• The purpose of the spell is unclear, but it is evident that the Witches are up to no good
• The Witches' chant is in a different rhythm compared to the other characters, indicating their supernatural nature
• When the Witches make predictions, they only say what will happen and not how it will happen
• Macbeth falls into the trap of believing he is safer than he actually is
• Third Apparition:

  • Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are
  • Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him
• Macbeth dismisses the prediction instantly, saying "That will never be"
• The prediction of the forest of trees uprooting itself and moving will come true, but not in the way Macbeth expects
• The witches in the play are referred to as the "weird sisters" by many characters
• The witches lurk like dark thoughts and unconscious temptations to evil throughout the play
• The mischief caused by the witches stems from their supernatural powers and their understanding of the weaknesses of their specific interlocutors
• The witches play upon Macbeth's ambition like puppeteers
• The witches' appearance with beards, bizarre potions, and rhymed speech make them seem slightly ridiculous, like caricatures of the supernatural
• Shakespeare has the witches speak in rhyming couplets throughout the play, separating them from other characters who mostly speak in blank verse
• Despite the absurdity of their recipes, the witches are the most dangerous characters in the play, being both tremendously powerful and utterly wicked
• The witches are left for the audience to question whether they are independent agents toying with human lives or agents of fate whose prophecies are reports of the inevitable
• The witches bear a resemblance to the Fates in Norse and Greek mythology, who weave the fabric of human lives and cut the threads to end them
• Some of the witches' prophecies in the play seem self-fulfilling, while others are remarkably accurate readings of the future
• Shakespeare keeps the witches well outside the limits of human comprehension, embodying an unreasoning, instinctive evil