Essay On The Witches In Macbeth

Macbeth easily tempted into murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne, and once he commits his first crime and is crowned king of Scotland, he had to kill other people to keep his secret safe and to secure his throne and the moment of awful guilt when Banquo’s ghost appears and also his lady’s death seems to give away the misery. These reflect the tragic tension to Macbeth. Macbeth cannot maintain his power because his increasingly brutal actions make him hated as a

In the play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is more responsible for the deaths that occur in the play. Lady Macbeth accomplished this by infringing Macbeth’s comfort level, which made him uncomfortable and give into her desires. The four reasons why Lady Macbeth is responsible is she summons evil demons to fill her body with evil, her death pushes Macbeth over the edge, she has the gender power over Macbeth, and she drives Macbeth to become power hungry. During the course of the play most of Lady Macbeth’s actions cause a direct reaction from Macbeth. If Lady Macbeth had not exhorted Macbeth into murdering King Duncan, then he would have remained a sane man and decided against killing Duncan.

In fact, Macbeth becomes fascinated by them, "would they had stayed." Banquo serves as his conscience, perhaps representing the period audience who would have also thought the witches to be evil and unnatural, and warns him of the dangers of trusting such supernatural messengers; a warning that goes unheeded. After hearing the prophecy, Macbeth already thinks about, "murder," and becomes preoccupied with thoughts of becoming king showing the powerful hold they have over him with only one meeting, scaring the audience who would have believed in Witches. Macbeth believes the Witches as there first prophecy came true and ignores the fact that they’re evil beings whereas Banquo recognizes them for what they are. He even informs his most beloved, Lady Macbeth, who also shares his ambition.

Many reprobates walk a thin line between good and evil; indeed, many miscreants have redeemed into remorse, sympathy or even empathy, but can the evil really be taken away from that person? Evil is a destructive force, it harms those who embrace it and their victims. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the title character succumbs to evil through his fatal flaw and greed. It corrupts everything it touches, so when evil clutches Macbeth, it corrupts him, and it ultimately destroys him as well.

Ironically, as the causes of more events were understood, this led to a greater recognition that many events still could not be understood, promoting wider belief in magic and the supernatural and a changed understanding of what witchcraft involved. For example, leaders accused witches of causing the black plague (Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Era 20). More broadly, accused witches were charged with having used dark forces to cause adverse events and to torture others. The definition of witchcraft came to include the idea that witches were ‘demon worshipers’ who worshiped the devil and used his magic. Not surprisingly, Shakespeare’s writing strongly reflected ideas about witchcraft in his time.

Macbeth went to great lengths to make sure they came true. The witches just told him facts, they did not tell Macbeth how they would come about. Macbeth was responsible for his own actions when killing King Duncan, the guards, and his best friend Banquo. These actions came from his flaw of ambition, His ambition for power would stop at nothing for him to become king. He wanted power so bad that he was willing to kill his best friend.

Then, when Macbeth seeks the witches, they further equivocate, orchestrating his downfall by misleading him. The author also depicts Malcolm using equivocation to deceive MacDuff into revealing his true personality, helping him develop a valuable alliance to defeat Macbeth. From these instances of deception in Macbeth, Shakespeare shows equivocation as a weapon. Equivocation is a weapon that grants significant power over a situation to its caster by enabling them to reveal the true intentions of the victim and manipulate their action with the results depending on the intent of the equivocator.

He was the one that seemed “to jeer” (145) as he pointed towards the corpse of Victor’s wife. This sequence, without background, puts him in the wrong. But he did not kill his victims without reason. His hatred for Victor was so intense, it fueled a mad desire for revenge. On page 102, when the monster learns that William is a Frankenstein, he says “you belong then to my enemy,” having never actually met Victor in person.

People both hated and feared these creatures. Traditionally scholars consider the Witches in Macbeth to represent darkness and chaos. They are also considered to be the connection with the supernatural world. Mondal ([sa]:1) states that they have the ability

Therefore, Macbeths desire to become King grew deep in his heart. He desperately wanted the Crown and also the power to rule over the people of Scotland. Macbeth however suppressed his feelings; unfortunately Lady Macbeth’s greediness and the three Witches’ prophecies contribute lot to Macbeth’s downfall. Since Witches predicted that no man born from a woman could kill him, he would not be defeated until the forest of move to his castle.

‘’A hero of noble stature whose fortunes are reversed as a result of weakness. ’’ The tragedy of Macbeth and his actions that he had done to his town, and members of the town affected many people in Macbeth. Since the beginning of the play it was represented supernatural if you will say. I say that because the witches are the ones that started it with his fate of being king.

The idea of witches stemmed from religious folks believing that the Devil could give certain people, known as witches, the power to harm others in return for their loyalty (Smithsonian). Due to the popularity of religion and supernatural beliefs, many people believed that the source of evil was the Devil. This idea appeared in Europe as early as the 14th century and it was quite popular in New England colonies. Villagers often blamed unfortunate things upon the Devil and other spectral sources of evil due to their lack of knowledge.

When first introduced to Macbeth, the witches give off an unearthly aura and are portrayed as such. Banquo describes the witches as “[…] That look not like the inhabitants ó the earth […] Upon her skinny lips lips: you should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” (1.3.40 – 49). This immediately sets a dark and ominous tone before the witches reveal the prophecy which sets the play in motion: “All hail, Macbeth!

I chose to make a model of the scene when Macduff’s soldiers carry wood up the hill to portray the witches giving Macbeth double meanings, and in turn giving him false hope. I chose to make a model that portrays Macduff’s soldiers carrying trees up the Dunsinane Hill, with Macbeth standing alone at the top of the hill. Macduff’s soldiers are carrying bark on their backs to disguise themselves and sneak into Macbeth’s castle. We chose to have Macbeth alone at the top, staring at his kingdom to portray the struggle between Macbeth and his country. The people that he rule do not trust his either his kingship, nor his honesty, and this shows in the faceoff between Macbeth and Macduff’s army.

Macbeth chose to kill King Duncan on his own accord. His wife Lady Macbeth may have helped him come up with the plan and urged him on, it was his own hand that held the knife. Although without the witches there to inform Macbeth that one day he would be king, he may have gone down a completely different path. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare shows how giving people a glimpse into their future can change their fate.