THE WITCHES 🧙🏻🧙🏻🧙🏻

• thunder and lightning (stage direction)

  • pathetic fallacy enrobed
  • atmosphere is volatile and ominous
  • motif of darkness
• “when shall we three meet again”

  • opens the play in media res
  • establishes a sense of mystery and secrecy
  • math be in the middle of cultivating a malevolent scheme against Macbeth
  • we are unsure about their intentions which heightens their power - foreshadows macbeth’s manipulation
• ”beards”

  • masculinity is synonymous with power throughout the text
  • description imbues them with a threatening dominance
• “look not like th’inhabitants o’th’earth”

  • perceives their overt evil and dehumanises them in his description
  • physiognomy exposes them as inhumane and evil
• ”you should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so.”

  • Banquo acknowledges physical flaws of the witches
  • states they are unknown creatures who could not be a regular person like himself
  • inability to interpret their gender highlights ambiguity and confusion
• “eyes of newt” “fire burn and cauldron bubble” “hell-broth, boil and bubble”

  • proverbial supernatural phrases
  • conforms to the archetype of witches audience would fear
  • allusions to heat and hell epitomise their evil nature