Double Toil And Trouble Analysis

“Double, double toil and trouble” In the beginning of act IV, scene I, the speakers are the three weird sisters, also called witches. Have been sent by Hecate (in act III, scene V), their master and greek goddess of magic, to correct the great unbalance they have created (by convincing Macbeth to kill King Duncan) and take Macbeth off the throne. They use a creepy lyrical tone as they recite a poem and create a potion to summon apparitions. This poem has a lot of imagery and figurative language, very unique combinations of sound and rhythm, and a recurring theme, creating a perfect potion to achieve exactly what they want “Cool it with a baboon’s blood, Then the charm is firm and good.”

As the sisters add elements to the caldron they paint a picture of the ingredients using imagery. The first ingredient “Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one Swelter’d venom sleeping has got.” is a toad that has been sweating poison thirty-one days under a cold stone. Many of the ingredients contain symbolism “howlet’s wing” and “slips of yew” are both symbols of death. The sisters rarely use similes such as “Like a hell-broth boil and bubble”

They use a lot of end rhyme “Round about the cauldron go: In the poison'd entrails throw.-” and “Double, double toil and trouble Fire, burn, and, caldron, bubble.” are just a couple of examples. The sisters also use alliteration such as “Baboons blood” “Lizard’s leg” and “salt-sea shark”. The sisters normally speak in a pattern of 1 ,2 ,3, almost like an spirit of one voice occupying multiple bodies. Another thing that set them apart from the other characters is that unless Shakespeare was writing in prose each line would be about five meter, instead they have 2.5 to 4.5 indicating frequent