witches

• look not like the inhabitants o' the Earth" (Banquo)


  Banquo percieves their overt evil and dehumanises them in his descriotion. The witches physiognomy exposes them as inhumane and evil. Banquo is prtrayed as pereptive as ir was believed that he was an ancestor of james I , thus this is a form of indirect flattery
• instruments of darkness


  This is suggesting their evil musicality, perhaps showing how their words are almost hypnotic for Macbeth. This is compounded as they speak in trochaic tetrameter, which is distinct from the iambic pentameter that noble characters speak in throughout the play, this gives their speech an eerie songlike quality.
• The pit of Acheron


  The witches appear synonymous with wickedness and hell. Acheron was one of the rivers that ran through Hades (the underworld/ hell in Greek mythology), as they are depicted as meeting there it reinforces how the Witches are inextricably linked with hell.
• Eye of newt. Fire burn and cauldron bubble. And he'll broth boil and bubble


  Witches amplify the theme of deception and equivocation within this act as they speak in proverbial supernatural phrases - they conform to the archetype of witches that the audience would fear
• Fair is foul and foul is fair

  They speak in paradoxes and oxymorons. This is see. When they chant this paradoxical phrase, their speech is conflicting and what they appear to say does not correlate with the reality . Their conflicting language is notable through the entirety of the play reinforcing their deceitful and duplicitous intentions
• So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (Macbeth)

  They are successful in their manipulation of Macbeth through their duplicitousness , highlighted through him echoing the paradoxical language of the witches . The oxymoron fair and foul directly mirrors tbe witches ominous nursery rhyme like chant - Macbeth is instantly introduced as malleable and susceptible to their ma,evolent schemes
• [an isolated place. Thunder]

  Isolated creates an image of restriction illuminating how they want to restrict Macbeth mentally and physically so that is is easier for them to employ their deception. This juxtaposes act one being thunder and lightning. The lack of light alludes to how they will continue to keep Macbeth both in the physical and metaphorical dark about their intentions
• armed head, bloody child, crowned child holding a tree


  The witches summon three apparitions which are manifestations of the threats Macbeth faces . The first being emblematic of the violence of battle and foreshadows Macbeths decapitation.the second representing Macduff who was born by caesarean section. The third is emblematic of Birnam wood where Macbeth lives or the natural rural imagery could suggest that Scotland would flourish under Malcom's rule
• None of woman born shall harm Macbeth

  Each of the prophecies are equivocal (vague) and ambiguous. They appear to be giving Macbeth pertinent (important) insight to his safety. Instead, the reality is they are giving him a Macbeth an ephemeral (temporary) sense of security and invincibility- they know his hubris obstructs him from seeing this.
• thunder and lightning


  Shakespeare couples their introduction with pathetic fallacy-the atmosphere is volatile, ominous and dangerous from the offset. This could foreshadow the violence that will ensue throughout the play- the disrupted and aggravated weather being nature's fury at this coming violence.
• Beards


  Throughout the text masculinity is synonymous with power, thus this description imbues them with a threatening dominance. They therefore appear androgynous, and alike to Lady Macbeth, express gender non-conformity