Macbeth: Witches Influence on Macbeth's Decisions

Topic: How important are the witches to Macbeth? Discuss the effects of the witches on character, plot, themes and audience.

power and convinced Macbeth to murder king Duncan while he was dwelling upon it. “Was the

Macbeth, how does he do this? Shakespeare positions us to feel pity for Macbeth, the

Lady Macbeth coerced him to feel guilt towards her instead of Duncan so he could stop being so difficult and go through with the

"be bloody, bold, and resolute, laugh to scorn. The power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth"

The tragedy of Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s commonly known plays. It tells the tragic tale of how a man is corrupted by the power that he desires. But what began and continued this devilish train of thought?

Macbeth plots to kill him with a dagger. He has a dark mindset and even gets a flash of blood run through his head thinking about it before he actually decides to stab King Duncan. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth planned to kill King Duncan many times before and they finally have a chance and Macbeth goes and kills him.

Imagine feeling in control; like every choice made was your own doing and what you envisioned. However this is all an illusion. In reality there is someone else, whispering every move made into your ear and steering you in a specific direction. They are like a puppet master. They have dominance over your thoughts and movements without you realizing it.

The strive and ambition for power can seem to be true perfection, but one should be careful what they wish for, because that power might be exactly what causes their downfall. In the play, Macbeth, by, William Shakespeare, the witches have a significant role. They represent that some things are too good too be true and sometimes we shouldn’t try and follow everything that we hear. The witches give Macbeth many prophecies throughout the play. Macbeth listened to the things they said and it resulted in his death and his own downfall. The witches play the role in the play of, developing plot, advancing characters and setting themes.

Macbeth’s intense desire to take King Duncan’s place led him to end the king’s life. His

There were a number of factors that influenced Macbeth's decision whether to assassinate King Duncan or not. Each of these arguments worked for or against Macbeth's better judgement of the situation. Eventually, a combination of all these factors broke down his conscience through his mental weakness; this led to an unwise decision to kill the King. The consequences of this were fairly disastrous because Macbeth began to regret his actions just moments after the deed was done.

Audiences today enjoy both horror movies and books, content that such experiences belong to the realm of entertainment. Macbeth’s contemporary audience, however, watched the play against a context of Renaissance beliefs about the paranormal and the divine. No wonder then that these audiences’ reactions to the witches are so contrasting. Shakespeare portrays the witches in what seems to a 21st century audience a stereotypical way. There are many things that come to mind when we hear the word witches: Halloween, the Devil, magic, potions, death, broomsticks and the clothes they wear which includes cloaks and pointed hats.

The witches prophecy leads Macbeth to kill Duncan, seeing as they prophesied that he was to be the new king. Although Macbeth was the one to kill Duncan, he would have never committed such a crime if the witches had not put the ruthless and evil prophecies into his mind. When he kills Duncan, he is regretful, he can

past the present in to the future such as when they say " when the

will be not so happy because he will have an early death, but he will