supernatural / the witches

• Thesis - Shakespeare's purpose is to flatter King James' interest in witchcraft and to show the audience how much our life is controlled by fate.
• The first lines of the play - "in thunder, lightning or in rain" gives us the possibility that they control the weather and their supernatural power
• If they only have the gift of foresight, Macbeth wouldn't have had to do anything but they only guided Macbeth's evil and hamartia - the witches never told Macbeth anything evil, only the prophecies.
• "Cawdor, and will be king hereafter", reinforces the idea that they are just prophecies and not them manipulating fate. All the responsibility is Macbeth's fault which tells the nobles that they are responsible while King James sees that people are evil due to supernatural.
• "Why do I yield to that suggestion, Whose horrid image fix in my hair." Asking himself what it is about him that is causing him to think about committing regicide, he realises there is something morally wrong with him and his heroism hides his hamartia.
• "If chance may have me king, why chance may crown me, without my stir?" He tells himself that he doesn't have to do anything. He calls fate "chance" which means random and lucky so there is an element of uncertainty which shows his words working against him.
• Banquo was the ancestor of King James so he is there to give him a sense of moral certainty and show the King that he should aim to be like Banquo. Also aims to show the audience that King James was good like his ancestor and they shouldn't be against him even after the Gunpowder Plot.
• "Instruments of darkness tell us truths". Banquo says this to Macbeth to show that the witches are just trying to win us over. Banquo is the foil to Macbeth and tries to take a step back and think about what the evil will lead to.
• "Instruments of darkness" has 2 meanings: the witches are either evil and dark or are being controlled by someone higher up which is pushed by them talking about "Hecate"
• "You should be women and yet your beards forbid me of thinking so." Macbeth might not believe in the power of the witches being in league with the devil. The society was patriarchal so they couldn't get any power or status as women.
• Women gain power by manipulating men so the witches try to manipulate the strongest man, Macbeth, in order to gain as much powe as they can achieve themselves.
• "A dagger of the mind." Macbeth knows he is destroying his own sanity by trying to kill Duncan but his desires still make him go forth. Macbeth's own desires are doing the job and not the witches. The blood on the dagger emphasises his bloodlust and his joy for killing and bloodshed.
• "Heat oppressed brain." The power of his own desires are so fierce that they produce their own heat. Heat could also be a motif for the fires of Hell so thinking of murdering Duncan is him stepping into this hellish world and the heat is turned up.
• "Thou canst no say I did it." He says this to Banquo's ghost. When Macbeth killed Duncan, he was still following the witches prophecies but him killing Banquo and trying to kill his sons is against fate so it intervenes and leads to his downfall.
• "Never shake thy gory locks at me." Macbeth focuses on the blood spilt from the murdered Duncan and he confesses to the nobles at the dinner that he was assassinated. This was the real point where everything went wrong and not when Duncan was murdered.
• "I am bent to know, by the worst means, the worst." Macbeth wants to find out what the worst thing that is going to happen is.
• "By the prickling of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes." They have picked on Macbeth because he is wicked and saw it in him before. They talk to him in riddles as something that happens in Greek Tragedies. The oracle would present information as a riddle as a game which suggests that they are just instruments of fate rather than that of darkness.
• Macbeth doesn't just want to be king since he kept on killing, he just wants bloodshed and violence to continue. This could come from his ambition to gain more power and his greed
• "None of woman born shall harm Macbeth." This was a massive con from the witches as they toy with Macbeth since they present something which is impossible.
• Macbeth killing Macduff's family has nothing to do with the witches and in fact him following the witches advice would have meant he wouldn't have killed his family. The witches are portrayed to be manipulating his hopes and show a greater despair if he chooses to go against fate as he already has done.
• The death of Lady Macbeth proves Macbeth's love for her and he loses the value for life and becomes nihilistic once a part of his life goes. You could argue that everything he does and everyone he kills is to preserve him and his wife's power and future.
• "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage." His whole life was pointless but that he is a shadow of kingship and always tries to chase and chase it which proved to be pointless. The shadow is the name of the understudy, he is an imposter of Duncan and didn't deserve the throne and is unfit to be king.
• "He is playing a tale told by an idiot." He accuses God of being an idiot and confirms he is an awful person and also denies his own responsibility by blaming it on God. Shows his despair and that he doesn't blame the witches either so he curses himself for indulging in this false hope rather than the witches.
• "What's he that was not born of woman? Such a one am I to fear." He goes looking for his own death and trying to solve this riddle. This shows the power of fate and tragedy. He is like us trying to find the end of the story and how it ends.
• "I have forgot the taste of fears." He wants to get back in touch with his feelings that he lost along the way. Ever since the beginning the only thing he was afraid of was his thoughts and desires which he has now followed leaving nothing behind.
• Conclusion - This is a cautionary tale for the nobles to not be tempted and to not listen to evil influences but instead the GCoB and the DRoK. Shakespeare shows the audience Macbeth's mind and thoughts for them to not follow and go against what he thinks and does.