Witches

The Witches in MacBeth      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

The Wicked Witches of Scotland Throughout history, people have often fought over power and used it to dominate others. There are many forms of power such as physical strength, knowledge, wealth, possessions, and fear. These are simple, mundane powers that people can wield. However, in many religions and some superstitions, people believe in beings who possess supernatural powers. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth there are such beings, more specifically witches, who have many paranormal capabilities

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. The first people to meet the Witches are Banquo and Macbeth. They find the witches appearance is vile. We can see this as Banquo says that “(they) look not like the inhabitants of the earth.” This shows us that the witches are obviously strange, and probably misshapen in their

Hi, I’m Maddy Foster and this is another episode of ‘Which Witch is Which?’ Today we’re going to talk about the witches, also known as the weïrd sisters, in Macbeth. Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest play, but arguably his darkest and most powerful creation. King James I commissioned Shakespeare to write this play for his amusement sometime around 1606. It deals with an array of themes including revenge, guilt, violence, insanity and also the supernatural. Shakespeare based Macbeth mainly on an

How do the witches affect the actions of Macbeth? Macduff enters Holding Macbeth's Lifeless head. “Hail King of Scotland!”, Cheer the people. How did it get to this? How did a soft-hearted and honest noble like Macbeth get into this position? The quick and easy answer is that it was the work of the three witches. At the beginning of the play, the three witches gave Macbeth and Banquo prophecies; Macbeth will be king, thane of Cawdor, and be thane of Glamis. They also said that Banquo’s sons will

The Three Witches or Weird Sisters in Macbeth were depictions of Holinshed’s sisters “creatures of the elderwood… nymphs or faries”(Chronicles 268). Nymphs are usually portrayed as goddesses of the forests; mountains, waters and they possess an unlimited contract of youthful beauty, endued with knowledge of prophecies. For other topical evidence, there is Matthew Gwinne’s brief Latin pageant, ‘TresSibyllae’ (Three Sibyls), welcoming King James to St John’s College, Oxford, on 27 August 1605. It

In the play Macbeth the three witches managed to change the future to what they had predicted. Other types of fantasy also played a role in making the tragic ending. These sorts of witchcraft or in other words magic made the play what it is and conveyed character such as Macbeth to do and think of certain things. The witches played a huge role in the story of Macbeth and made him become who he ends up as. Macbeth was a very honorable knight that served king Duncan till his last breath. He did not

The witches in Macbeth are very important in the plot and develop certain aspects of the play. They make greater the theatrical experience with images of darkness, thunder and lightning that make Macbeth the tragedy it is. Their actions also add to the play, dancing round the cauldron and chanting ‘Double, double…'. Their appearance as ‘dark hags' adds mystery to the play. The witches also add a sense of evil and of the supernatural. Their chanting, ‘Double, double, toil and trouble: Fire burn

three witches and begins his ambitious journey to fulfill the prophecy and take the throne. First of all, Macbeth is directly influenced by the witches when they show him he will become the king, because this leads him to believe he is entitled to certain power and his thirst for it grows. Macbeth first encounters the witches early on with his friend Banquo. When Macbeth is with Banquo he thinks ‘’ My, thought whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man

guilty of causing a majority of these murders are the three witches. It is the witches who first give Macbeth the idea to kill Duncan and Banquo. The audience also discovers that the witches are not supposed to give out these half prophecies that cause the murders. Finally, it is the witches who are entirely responsible for pushing Macbeth to the point of killing all of Macduff’s family. From the very beginning of the play, the witches were shown to be vile and bloodthirsty creatures. They are responsible