The witches are possibly linked as the “charms” seem to influence Macbeth and he begins to echo “foul and fair”. Whenever Macbeth seems at his most inhumane he uses rhyming couplets for example, “knell that summons…to heaven…hell” is used before killing Duncan in act 2 and “fight…heaven…find it out to-night” before killing Banquo in act 3.
The truth is that many of these decisions that Macbeth makes or follows is based on what the witches told him. One example of this is when Lady Macbeth convinces him to kill Duncan in order to become king. She specifically says, “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature / … / That I may pour my spirits in thine ear, / and chastise with the valor of my tongue” (1.5.16-17, 27-28). In this quote Lady Macbeth is thinking about the witches prophecy and how she can make it come true.
In the opening of the play, a loyal Macbeth is approached by three witches who entice him with their claim that “[he] shalt be king thereafter.” (1-3-50). This information stimulates his hidden thirst for power and willingness to keep the throne for himself. He plots to murder the king and takes the liberty of killing Banquo, and anyone else who poses a threat to his reign to aid his own insecurity. Macbeth begins to lose trust in those around him and becomes unstable. Shakespeare shows through Duncan, who carries a legitimate power, that only direct threats to the kingdom are punished accordingly.
What is the significance of Shakespeare beginning the play with the witches? Shakespeare opens with the witches in order to foreshadow what occurs in the play. The witches opening scene generates conflict, suspense and tension. It also tells us the predictions that will happen to Macbeth. It also develops the wicked and evil characters of the witches.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, light and dark play a big role in the dualities of the characters, the setting and the imagery throughout the play. Macbeth begins with three witches talking about when to meet again. These witches are evil by nature and represent evil throughout the book. The head of these witches states in her first line, “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lighting or in rain?” (I. i.
He brags to his wife: But let the frame of tings disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we will eat our meal in fear [. . .]. (70-71) In Everybody's Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack explains that the witches are associated with fate: Except in one phrase (I.3.6) and in
“By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis./ But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives” (Shakespeare 19). Through this quote near the beginning of the play, Shakespeare reveals the slight interest Macbeth has for the unexpected title that the witches called him. He goes on to say a short time later,”This is supernatural soliciting/ Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill/ Why hath it given me earnest of success/ Commencing in a truth?
The atmosphere is quite supernatural. A form of imagery is created threw the descriptive language in the opening scene e.g. ‘fog and filthy air’. The reader is left thinking who Macbeth is after being introduced to the witches and their characters. 2) Explain the meaning of the witches line “fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Act 1, scene 1, line 11) * The line ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ is an exploitment of opposites.
How far is Macbeth responsible for his own downfall? When considering the above question, it is important to discuss the relative ‘power’ of other characters within the play in order to establish their influence on Macbeth’s actions. The first characters to consider are the witches. Shakespeare establishes their power and supernatural abilities from the moment they are introduced to us. Significantly, the witches open the play, a further indication of their importance to the plot.
The third contrasts the Elizabethan Society with the modern one, which gives more scientifically and psychological reasons for the mental illness of Lady Macbeth. The rest of the task compares both interpretations of her mental illness and what took her to do such things and why did she end with hallucinations and insomnia which later drove her to her death. Word count: 234 “Macbeth” or “The Tragedy of Macbeth” is a play written by William Shakespeare around the 1606. The tragedy is about a man called Macbeth which is a brave fighter who is winning important battles for the King Duncan in Scotland. Three witches appear once and predicted his future; among those predictions was the one they said that soon Macbeth will reach the crown of Scotland supplanting the recent king, Duncan.