How Did The Witches Influence Macbeth

The tragic play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare in 1606 begins with three witches, which have a very important role in the play. The three weird sisters cause both Macbeth’s rise to power and the fall to his death. Through the influence of the witches, Macbeth transforms from a noble martinet into a ruthless marauder overcome with power, eventually leading to his death. The witches indirectly control Macbeth and his actions in the play. They may not actually be forcing Macbeth to do certain actions, but their prophecies have a great impact on him. In the play Macbeth, the scenes with the witches add temptation through evilness and corruption, but more specifically they set the mood and the plot. The witches explicitly set the mood

This shows that from the start the witches were evil and foreboding. The audience learns more about the witches in scene III because the first witch shows how evil she truly is. She says, “A sailors wife had chestnuts in her lap, / And mounch’d, and mounch’d, and mounch’d. ‘Give me,’ / quoth I: / ‘Aroint thee, withch!’ the rump-fed ronyon cries… I’ll drain him dry as hay. / Sleep shal neither night or day / Hang upon his penthouse lid. / He shall live a man forbid. / Weary sev’nnights nine times nine / Shall he dwindle, peak and pine” (4). This displays the evilness of the first witch. She wants to put a sailor through pain and suffering just because his wife did not share her chestnuts. This adds an overreaching theme of evilness and conveys that the witches are the evil, and they are the instruments of darkness in the play. Later on all of the witches meet to cast a spell, which adds a frightening atmosphere to the play. Without the witches the play would lose the threatening mood, which is conveyed in Act 4 when the tension is heightened. The stage directions say, “A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron / Thunder. Enter the three witches.” and the First Witch says, “Round

They do not force Macbeth into anything he does not want to do, although the prophecies of the witches have a serious impact on Macbeth’s actions. The role of the witches adds to the plot because it established the role to manipulate Macbeth into madness and preforming gruesome crimes. The witches first encounter Macbeth with his comrade Banquo, and they start to reveal their fate. Macbeth says, “hand, / Posters of the sea and land, / Thus do go about, about, / Thrice to thrine and thrice to mine/ And thrice again, to make up nine. / Peace! The charm’s wound up.” (5). This conveys the witches are trying to make Macbeth believe he is destined to become king, so they are not actually forcing him to do anything, just putting ideas into his mind. Macbeth begins to believe what the witches said might be true, so Macbeth forms an intense passion to become the king of Scotland. This eventually became so strong that he goes through extreme measures to achieve what he wants. The witches also told Banquo his fate when they saw him, they said, ““Lesser than Macbeth, and greater. / Not so happy, yet much happier. / Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none: / So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!” (6). This worries Macbeth because although Banquo will never be King his sons will be one day. Macbeth feels threatened by Banquo and his family because he does not want anyone to come in the way of the thrown. This