The Witches' Evil Influence in Shakespeare's Macbeth Essay

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a dark play both literally and symbolically. The Tone of the play is ominous and its central characters are evil. The play is considered to be a

Credited as one of William Shakespeare’s bloodiest and darkest works, The Tragedy of Macbeth is an emotionally tense, gripping play about loyalty, betrayal and ambition. Blinded by his vaulting ambition and encouraged by his wife, Macbeth attempted to remove the obstacles preventing him from being king; these obstacles happened to be other characters in the play. Macbeth accepted the prophecies of witches as a guide for what would be, and misjudged what they told him. In the end, his overconfidence led him to his death as he believed that he could not be harmed, when he was just a mortal man. Over the course of Macbeth, one can clearly see the

The three witches that are introduced at the beginning of the play are responsible for the introduction of the ideas that caused Duncan’s death and Macbeth’s destruction but not for Macbeth’s actions themselves. They recount to Macbeth three prophecies; that Macbeth will be: 1) Thane of Cawdor, 2) Thane of Glamis, and 3) King. Macbeth welcomes the ideas spawned from the witches’ prophecies, which is what triggered the spiral of events in this story. Macbeth eventually followed through with killing King Duncan. It was sometimes thought that the witches had the ability to reverse the natural order of things. This brings to the play the idea of fate and the role it has in the play.

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair," a quote from the play that is said by the witches in Act 1, Scene 1. This quote shows us the evil within the witches. Throughout the play, whenever we encounter the witches the mood changes to dark and gloomy. They are very mischievous and this has a lot to do with their supernatural powers. One of the most noticeable differences between them and the other characters are that they speak in rhyme, this shows how different they are compared to the other characters.. The witches use Macbeth's vulnerability to manipulate his life by using their powers to destruct his mind and everything he once was. The first encounter between Macbeth, Banquo and the witches (Act 1, Scene 3), Macbeth brushes off what they have to tell him but Banquo thinks they should listen to them and is not frightened at all. Macbeth then becomes afraid of the witches and their powers, at first he never believed them, but once he sees that their sayings are coming true, such as towards the end when he sees the forest starting to come against him (Act 5, Scene 5), he starts to realize that they have mislead him and took him to his own death. The witches cause both Macbeth’s rise to power and the fall to his death. Through the influence of the Weird Sisters’ prophecies, Macbeth transforms from a noble military general into a ruthless tyrant overcome with madness for power, eventually leading to the death of Macbeth.

The play begins in a 'desolate place' as the stage directions tell us. Shakespeare uses the pathetic fallacy of 'Thunder and Lightening.' This creates an atmosphere of dark and evil and anticipates something frightening. There are three witches, casting a spell, as Shakespeare shows through the use of rhyming couplets at the end of lines. In addition to this, he uses the syntatic parralelism to suggest that everything is not what it will seem. 'Fair is foul and foul is fair.' This warns the audience so that they can make predictions of what will happen in 'Macbeth.'

Macbeth is a 17th-century tragedy play that was written by William Shakespeare. It follows the journey of a Scottish general named Macbeth, who receives a prophecy from three sisters that he will become the king of Scotland. The narrative presents issues regarding the depths of what humans will do to get what others have and ‘deceptive appearances’, which are shown through a number of techniques such as foreshadowing, imagery and characterization. Such ideas would be interpreted differently by an Elizabethan when compared to a modern day audience.

First of all, the witches are the source of the problem that is the topic for this play. They create chaos by nature and follow their leader, Hecate. They plan Macbeth’s

Despite Macbeth being in control of his own life, Shakespeare felt the witches gave the supernatural touch the play needed because witches were associated with darkness and death, the audience at the time viewed witches to be evil servants of the devil, and they told Macbeth his prophecies and if anyone else would have said it he probably not have considered killing the king, but prophecies were believed to be true back then. The phrase the witches repeat in Macbeth refers to Macbeth as well as the everyday man. Macbeth does everything that he formerly considers as foul. “Fair is foul and foul is fair,” (Macbeth). When most people think of witches today, they think green skin, pointy noses, black hats, and cauldrons. Witches have been perceived

shaped Macbeth into the person that he was at the end of the play. The

Macbeth, a renowned written play by the prominent William Shakespeare, features the protagonists Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and influencing characters like the three witches. The memorable three weird sisters perform a significant role throughout the play by conveying prophecies to the general commander Macbeth, and stir trouble. While these witches are clever, malicious beings, their petrifying appearances are confused to be more masculine than ladylike. Their obscure language assists to concoct the image of the vile creatures they are recognized for, with the frequent usage of rhyme, repetition and paradox in their speech. The witches have great importance to the theme of good vs. evil as they are evil characters. Shakespeare’s depiction of the witches and their importance to the theme of good vs. evil will be discussed in this essay.

   Shakespeare utilized many sources of information when writing his plays.  One of his sources for the witches in MacBeth was almost certainly Reginald Scot's The Discoverie of Witchcraft, published in 1584.  In his book, Scot refuted many of the common notions regarding witches and their powers; nevertheless, the book created a basic outline for the typical witch, including physical descriptions and abilities.  The witches in MacBeth are representations of those described in Scot's book.  In the play, Shakespeare describes authentic witches in their physical appearance and behavior and MacBeth's character is made more villainous through his association with these terrifying figures.

Under the fine print of The Tragedy of Macbeth, lies a curse set by the witches. The witches in this play, manipulate the minds of those vulnerable to its traps by using witchcraft to take control people and create tragedies that surround this play. The curse of Macbeth goes back centuries and till this day is believed to be true in theatre around the world, the book, and in our minds.

The first role of the witches in Macbeth is to set the mood of the play. The reader meets the witches in the very first scene. They repeat, “Fair is foul and foul is fair” (1.1.11). The

People that lived during the Elizabethan period were very superstitious. They feared the power of witches the most. The hate stemmed mostly from the ". . . supposed satanic beliefs of the witches and their heretical partnership with the Devil" (Papp and Kirkland 43). Others thought of witches only when something of value had been damaged. They automatically assumed that a witch or one of her familiars must have done it, and "the one thing everyone [knew] about witches [was] that they were women" (Briggs 259). Because of the rigid social rules for women during the Elizabethan period, it was very difficult for a woman during that time to always do as she was supposed to do, and because of the

I found responding to the play ‘Macbeth’ difficult because of the era it was written in. Shakespeare wrote the play between 1603-1606 when attitudes were completely different to the attitudes of society today, in particular, widespread belief in witchcraft. In contrast to today, when not many people believe in such things. They used to be feared. They were considered evil, ugly and vindictive. They did not belong to this world, they were ‘supernatural’, with supernatural powers. In the play the witches plant ideas into Macbeth’s head, which affects his inner soul. He changes from an honourable soldier to a vindictive murderer. We are introduced to Macbeth in the beginning when he is returning from the battlefield where he proved himself a