The witches, who throughout “Macbeth” make prophecies to “help” Macbeth himself, are particular female roles represented as evil. The witches and Hecate (a female goddess) are the only supernatural characters in the play. Within the Context of this time witches, and witchcraft were objects of morbid and fevered fascinations, and many suspected of being witches were cruelly persecuted. Did women only practice witchcraft? The witches are shown as figures that seem to trigger Macbeths murderous ambition, as their prophesy leads Macbeth to first consider killing Duncan, to gain power.
The Three Witches are evil and powerful woman who have the supernatural spirit. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”(1.1.11) The Witches are telling us that there is good and evil, nothing is as it seems. The Witches tell Macbeth that he will be the thane of Cawdor and second that he will be King of Scotland. This puts Macbeth in a position where the Witches tell him to do something about his future, even if it means betraying his own King. “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!
Roseanne Barr once said, “The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You take it.” In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, lady Macbeth, Hecate and the Three witches take it upon themselves to achieve power. By questioning Macbeth’s manhood, Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth into killing King Duncan, therefor achieving a position of power. The three witches play upon Macbeth’s ambitions to gain power over him and lead him to his downfall. The goddess of witchcraft, Hecate, manipulates Macbeth by taking power over the three witches and telling them to mislead Macbeth to his destruction.
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 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.
Macbeth betrays King Duncan because the witches told him he will become king. He also betrays his friend Banquo because the witches gave him predictions that can affect Macbeth. The three weird sisters betray Macbeth because he wants things to go his way. In “Macbeth”, Shakespeare demonstrates that betrayal is lead by unreasonable decisions that cause bad consequences. Macbeth
Moreover, when Reverend Parris confronts Abigail about being fired by Elizabeth Proctor, Abigail denies any wrongdoings. She accuses Elizabeth as “a lying, cold, sniveling women” who spreads rumor about to degrade her social status. Abigail’s motivation in the witchcraft is thus revealed, which is jealousy towards Elizabeth. As Abigail successfully frames other people for being responsible about the witchcraft, she further imposes her domination over the other girls. Her domination is demonstrated physically and verbally.
Lady Macbeth leaves the consistency in dialogue completely astray and does not speak in verse. This implies her madness in that Shakespeare only seemed to have the characters with abnormal states of minds or in abnormal conditions speak out verse. From this play, these characters would include the witches, who speak in trochaic tetrameter, and Lady Macbeth, who speaks out of verse to symbolize her insanity. The second literary device would be irony. Lady Macbeth is constantly ridiculing Macbeth because he is too afraid to kill Duncan, and she even tells him that he might as well be a woman.
The witches and Lady Macbeth made Macbeth lose his sanity. Lady Macbeth and the witches were to a great extent accountable for Macbeth’s actions. If he hadn’t trusted the witches’ prophecies so much and if Lady Macbeth wasn’t so vicious, Macbeth could have lived to become a respected King. His own actions, influenced by others, lead to his fatal
Macbeth on the other hand cannot sleep and starts to see things. When Macbeth starts acting strange towards people, Lady Macbeth deceives everyone to hind their secret. When Macbeth kills Banquo and Lady Macduff, Macbeth’s guilt starts to go away because the evil and amount of power has taken over him. Lady Macbeth starts to feel guilty and is no longer able to sleep. She fears the dark, meaning she is afraid of evil and what has become of it.