What Are The Witches That Influence Macbeth

Recalling the stereotype associated with witches, one can understand why the witches speak and act the way they do in the play, Macbeth. The character of the witches can be explored through their peculiar use of language. While they do not speak in iambic pentameter, the use of 10-11 syllables per line which indicates high status, they speak in trochaic tetrameter; each line is made up of seven syllables. This creates a sinister atmosphere. The three witches use prose as their language lacks rhythmic structure. Together with short and quick rhythm, rhyme is evident in their words, “When shall we three meet again/ In thunder, lightning or in rain?” From this quote one can grasp that the witches speak abnormally and cryptically. A paradox, a statement that contradicts itself, is also highlighted in their speech: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”; the reader understands that this is an indication of things changing and bad things occurring. “When the battle’s lost and won”; in a battle, it is either announced that one has won or lost, but in the previous quote, it makes mention of both winning and losing. “But in a sieve I’ll thither sail”; a sieve has holes and is used to separate solids from liquid. One cannot sail in something with holes. “And, like a rat without a tail”; like a human is born with ears, a rat is born with a tail. Rats do not exist

The three weird sisters prophesies orientate the plot in a certain direction, some events might not have occurred without their sayings. Macbeth hears these words and then tries to make

Like the witches, Lady Macbeth is crucial to the actual accomplishment of Macbeth's crime. Without her, Macbeth would not have carried out the murder in the first place - "we shall go no further in this business" - and without her timely interventions in gilding the groom's faces with blood and conveniently fainting when Macduff's questions become too insistent, it is unlikely that he would have got away with it. She seems to be just as ambitious as her husband and the plan to kill Duncan is largely hers. She overcomes Macbeth's scruples by both encouragement and scorn:

One can argue that all of the mischief in the play is caused my Lady Macbeth. The person who is the most influential is Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth feels she is too feminine to assist in the murder of the king, but feels that deep inside she is manlier than her husband. So, she tries to put her femininity aside when she says,

Macbeth, known infamously and fondly as the cursed play, coincidentally characterizes three of the most compelling and malevolent witches seen out of any fictional works. They are used as a powerful recurring symbol for the play as a means to support its dark and ominous themes. Shakespeare has molded them after both popular fate-controlling mythology and the real-life witches of seventeenth-century England, both carrying their own dark connotations, and employs unsettling rhyme sequences that spell out hidden nuances and certain doom for Macbeth. Shakespeare has crafted the Weird sisters to bear a striking resemblance to an identical pair of sisters, The Fates known from Greek mythology. In fact, their name ‘Weird’ comes

Shakespeare uses the witches to illustrate the men’s inability to act on their belief, to create a substantial difference in strength and power the women have over the men. The witches guide Macbeth towards the path of becoming king, which illustrates Macbeth's fatal flaw for the first time in the story as he then proves the witches prophecy. This displays the witches power over Macbeth as he completes their prophecy. The witches utilize Macbeth to view their own superiority over men by the witches manipulating and persuading them. Shakespeare uses the rant made by Hecate, to embellish the witches’ actions against Macbeth as manipulative to prove their dominance and superiority over him. “ Saucy and overbold, how did you dare To trade and traffic with Macbeth In riddles and affairs of death, And I, the mistress of your charms, The close contriver of all harms, Was never called to bear my part, Or show the glory of our art?”

Influence from people occur in life, whether at an advantage or disadvantage. However, negative influence can go farther than someone expects. In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth influenced Macbeth to kill King Duncan so that Macbeth can become king, and due to the influence, Macbeth starts to murder anyone whom he thinks is best fit as king. As a result of Macbeth becoming a horrendous murderer, Lady Macbeth is responsible for influencing Macbeth because of her own desire for power and neglecting future chaos.

The witches all chant and speak in rhyme and riddle , which is a traditional feature of a seventeenth century 'real' witch. There are three witches. The witches as well as being typical of 'real' witches in the seventeenth century are also disorderly and chaotic like dreams , they both do not keep to spatial reality or time, there are both blurry you never seem to see the full picture , they both show some connection to real life because the witches seem to show what Macbeth desires are and how he can get the, just like a fantasy dream might show what we want and desire. What Macbeth wants is more power and more power for him is to become the king and the witches just like our dreams would present us with what it would be like but the witches go further than dreams and tell him how he could obtain his desires. Both dreams and the witches are unrealistic, they do not conform to an ordinary structure.

One of the witches three tells a story which begins with her saying” A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap and munched and munched and munched. ‘Give me some quoth I. ‘Aroint thee, witch’ the rump fed-runnion cries…Her husband to Aleppo gone, Master o’th tiger… I’ll drain him dray as hay, and sleep shall fail him night or day (I,111 5-20).” The witches three hold power through words because what they say, goes. Through words they tell the future. Through words, they curse people who make them mad. Through words, they can easily make something sound really promising, and make it sound like it will all end well. It’s the exact opposite. To get some answers, Macbeth travels to the witches’ cave. The witches were expecting him, of course and the chanted “Be bloody, be bold, and resolute to laugh to scorn, the power of man, none shall harm Macbeth of women born(IV,180).” These words obviously make Macbeth feel much better, but that feeling overlaps the fact that these words are quite misleading. Macbeth, of course, didn’t give it a second thought or try to find everything wrong with that part. He heard what he wanted to and that’s all that mattered. He was ecstatic to hear he would never, ever be overthrown. Remember, he lived in constant fear of being over

In the Elizabethan era witches were generally blamed for most misfortunes. Whether it be epidemics of diseases or traitorous storms. In addition witches were also considered to be evil and creepy. In Macbeth they kill the sailor in order to get back at the sailor’s wife for not sharing her chestnuts. The first witch says “A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap, And mounch’d and mounch’d and mouch’d. “Give me” quoth I: “Aroint thee witch!” the rump-fed ronyon cries.” (1.3.4) The witches reaction to the sailor’s wife not sharing her chestnuts is a bit extensive but because they were seen as supernatural and supposively can control the wind they were able to take it above and beyond and trapped the sailor at sea until he ran out of rations and died. Storms and wind were often thought to be attached to witches during the Elizabethan era.

Throughout the play Macbeth’s choices were constantly influenced by other characters in the play; namely the three Witches and Lady Macbeth.

The witches gather again on the heath, as they promised to do in act 1 scene 1. They are back from killing pigs, placing curses on a man whose wife enraged them, by refusing to share her chestnuts. They encounter Macbeth and Banquo, as they are returning from the battle. Macbeth is repeating "So foul and fair a day I have not seen". The witches greet Macbeth as "Thane of Glamis" (his current title), "Thane of Cawdor" (the name the king gave him on scene 2 but he doesn’t know yet), and "king hereafter". They also greet Banquo with three sentences "Lesser than Macbeth and greater," "Not so happy, yet much happier," and a man who "shall get kings, though be none". By doing this, the witches make three predictions:

The witches play a vital role in Macbeth; they all have supernatural powers in which they use to feed the manipulated Macbeth with his ambition:

Shakespeare’s sources for this tragedy are the accounts of king Macbeth of Scotland, Macduff, and Duncan their origin lies in Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland. The other sources that help Shakespeare put the play together, include British folktale, such contemporary treatises on witchcraft as King James VI of Scotland’s Daemonologie, Scandinavian legends of the Norns, and ancient classical myths of the Fates: the Greek Moirai and the Roman Parcae.

Macbeth is a play about morals and how people can be easily influenced. The audience at the time when the play was written were more superstitious than we are. They believed in witches and thought that they were the devils disciples. They were believed to be able to control the weather, blamed many things, such as outbreaks of disease on them.