The witches

• The Witches


  • Supernatural beings
  • Give Macbeth cryptic prophecies
  • Predict Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor
  • Predict Macbeth will "get kings"
  • Predict Macbeth shall not be "vanquished" until "Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him"
• Shakespeare introduces the Witches in the first scene of the play, thus giving special emphasis to their importance
• Fair is foul, and foul is fair


  Paradoxical phrase that foreshadows the rest of the play
• Weird Sisters


  Bears connotations of "wired" meaning fate in Old English, associating their speech with prophecy
• The three Witches


  • Represent the three fates from classical mythology, as they claim to "spin the threads of life"
  • One spins, one measures, one cuts - relating to their roles in the future, present and past respectively
• The monarch at the time of writing in the early 17th Century was James I, who wrote the book 'Daemonologie' which explained how to identify a witch and how to tourture them
• These witches would be seen as a very real and genuine threat to the contemporary audience, who actually believed that witches lived amongst them and are more than a fictional fantasy
• Appealing to James I

  Shakespeare uses the character of the Witches to appeal to the current monarch James I, who had a passion for the history of witchcraft
• James I's passion for witches is evident as he was involved in many witch trials (e.g. North Berwick Witch Trials), where he took part in interrogating a witch
• James I believed the witches had tried to kill him on the way to the trials and therefore the portrayal of the Witches as inherently evil and agents of Satan appeals to him
• Shakespeare had the motive of wanting to make the play interesting to James so that he will financially support the theatre and ensure patronage
• Shakespeare condemns regicide through his portrayal of Macbeth and the mental torment it causes him
• Regicide


  Contradicting the will of God as the divine right of kings is subverted
• Macbeth is aligned with forces of supernatural evil within the play, and association with the supernatural will always result in suffering and severe consequences
• The Witches' direct influence upon the Macbeths is evidenced through the link between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's lack of sleep
• Supernatural


  • The rhythmic and chant-like nature of the Witches' rhetoric implies that their words have real extraordinary power
• Trochaic tetrameter


  The meter used by the Witches, causing them to stand out as different and other-worldly
• Rhyming couplets


  Gives the Witches' speech a spell-like sound, symbolic of spell casting and bringing things into existence through their utterances
• Macbeth


  The Witches are dependent on Macbeth to fulfill their prophecies, as it was believed witches were unable to directly kill man
• Hecate (Goddess of Witchcraft) meets with the Witches


  She wishes to play a direct role in Macbeth's downfall
• This leads to the question, is Macbeth entirely responsible for his downfall?
• The second meeting with Macbeth and the introduction of apparitions

  1. The Witches make further predictions, through the forms of apparitions which appear before Macbeth

  2. Beware Macduff

  3. None of woman born shall harm Macbeth

  4. Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill Shall come against him
• The Witches and their prophecies


  • They hold immense power over Macbeth
• Macbeth


  The Witches are dependent on Macbeth to fulfill their prophecies
• The Witches cannot directly kill man so instead they have to control others to create the disorder and chaos they wish to impart on mankind
• The Witches refer to a story about a sailor


  • Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed
• The Witches


  They can't kill Duncan themselves but instead they have the power to influence the men around him
• The Witches


  Their prophecies cause Macbeth to realise his own entrenched ambitions and then inspire him to act upon it
• Macbeth


  He is the one who physically carries out the act of regicide
• The Witches are simply a catalyst for Macbeth's actions, it is his desire to fulfill his ambition for power which provides the momentum within the play
• Macbeth had the potential to sin, but needed the suggestion in order to persuade him into acting
• The notion of regicide already existed within Macbeth's mind and he sustains it himself, rather than the Witches planting this entirely new concept in Macbeth's head
• Shakespeare's play is more of an exploration of the psychological state of Macbeth, rather than an exploration of the supernatural
• Duncan


  He linguistically echoes the witches in speech (unwittingly)
• This alleviates responsibility from Macbeth as suspicions of King Duncan's divineness is not necessarily only due to innate evil that the Witches have encouraged within him
• Banquo


  He is also affected by the Witches, as he admits to dreaming of them
• Banquo serves as evidence that the witches can be resisted and they do not have complete control
• Lady Macbeth


  She can be interpreted as a fourth witch, of perhaps an even greater evil
• Lady Macbeth uses paradoxical rhyming couplets which bear connotations of both evil and the Witches
• Lady Macbeth defies gender roles as she is dominant in her relationship with Macbeth, which was often all the justification needed to convict a woman of witchcraft