Macbeth: The Three Witches
William Shakespeare has been by far the world's most popular
playwright for more than 350 years. His ingenious ability as a playwright
has captivated audiences and will captivate audiences for years to come.
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, in 1564. The
specific date of his birth is not known but is celebrated on the feast of
St. George, April 23. Little is known about his boyhood, but through
examination it is thought that he collected a lot of his information from
books and from daily observation of the world around him.
During his life Shakespeare wrote many brilliant tragedies. He died
on April 23, 1616, at the age of 52. One of these brilliant tragedies was
Macbeth. It is thought to have been written between 1603 and 1606. Macbeth
is considered the shortest of Shakespeare's tragedies, but not less
powerful in its depiction of evil, greed, jealousy, and the madness these
emotions bring to a person. (Shakespeare, pg. v)
In any work of literature or drama there is usually foreshadowing.
Foreshadow can be defined to be, "a sign of something to come: indicate or
suggest beforehand; prefigure; presage." (Compton's Interactive
Encyclopedia) Playwrights use this technique to give the audience a sense
of what is to come or what exactly is going to happen to a character.
Foreshadowing can be easily detected or it cannot be noticed at all until
the end of the play or story. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Shakespeare uses
the prophecies of the witches and thoughts of Macbeth himself to foreshadow
within the play. And Macbeth himself detects them somewhat as does the
audience.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses the three witches as main sources
foreshadowing. In the play they are conveyed as prophecies. The audience
experiences a little of these prophecies almost immediately in the opening
scene and act of the play. When they talk about meeting Macbeth they say
they will greet him, "when the battle's lost and won." (Shakespeare, pg.1)
And then they yell together, "fair is foul, and foul is fair."(Shakespeare,
pg.1) These two examples foreshadow that some sort of evil will be coming
and that there will also be a victory of sorts, but the audience doesn't
know specifically what yet. These also suggest a great battle is to be
fought against good and evil and the events that follow will unfold at a
rapid pace. This foreshadowing can be detected by the audience because they
can feel the emotion of doom and evil rising.
The actual prophecies given by the witches occur in the third scene
not known, but historians believe that he was born in 1480, and he died in
The history of the time the play was written helps us to understand the views and the feelings expressed by Priestley in the play. The inspector transfers Priestley’s views and he shows the difference in social classes at the time. A gap which he wants to diminish. He illustrates the reason for this in the play, via the inspector, where he outlines the ways each of the Birlings have influenced someone from a completely different background and social class. This is the way Priestley viewed pre-war England.
the recurring theme of night and darkness is used to symbolize guilt and conscience such
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are several references to supernatural activity. This supernatural activity is very crucial to the storyline. Supernatural defined by Webster relates to an existence beyond the visible observable universe. The Three Apparitions are spoken of in Act IV of the play, but the supernatural is first introduced by the three witches in Act I. The three witches who speak the apparitions are the opening characters in Macbeth. After reading the book, I fully understand Shakespeare reasoning for including them in the story. Each of the three apparitions depicts a clue of Macbeth’s future.
William Shakespeare's Macbeth is an ominous tale that illustrates the danger in violating the Great Chain of Being, the hierarchy of things in God's ordered universe. The Chain ranked all of creation and human society as well. It ranked kings above nobles and nobles above the poor. When Macbeth murdered King Duncan and assumed the throne, the Chain was violated and chaos resulted. The atmosphere of the play symbolized this resulting turmoil. Specifically, light and darkness were used to exemplify the unnatural chaos and ominous tone of the work. The role of light and the role of darkness relates to the chaos resulting from the violation of the Great Chain of Being.
what happens next even if you are already familiar with the story. It feels new.
Societal influence can cause people to act in ways they would if their actions were based solely on their own accord. If someone is told the type of lifestyle they should lead repeatedly, that is how they begin to live their lives. This manifestly applies to Daisy in The Great Gatsby, a self-serving woman, a product of the self-serving 1920s, whose desires are greatly influenced by the standards of her society, ultimately causing her to become a callous and unfeeling individual.
Although Macbeth is not classed as being a supernatural play or a play of the occult, there are some elements in the play that Shakespeare uses to effect. It is necessary however, to define what is meant by the terms ‘occult’ and ‘supernatural’: the term ‘occult’ is defined as being ‘supernatural beliefs, practises or phenomenon’ and the term ‘supernatural’ is defined as being ‘attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature’; both these terms can be associated with gothic writing. Gothic writing usually involves elements that invoke a feeling of fear, repulsion and abhorrence from its readers or audience. Writers use imagery of the supernatural to achieve this effect, for example in Shelley’s Frankenstein the descriptions of Frankenstein’s creature: language and imagery here being used to invoke the emotion of fear.
In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, imagery plays a key role in the audience's understanding of the theme of the play. One type of imagery that is prevalent in the story is supernatural or unnatural imagery. With the sense of the supernatural and interference of the spirits, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are led to dangerous, tempting things. Macbeth's character changes dramatically from the brave soldier to the evil king. Lady Macbeth's character also changes from the loving wife and strong woman to the crazy, paranoid woman. Shakespeare uses witches, apparitions, ghosts, and other unnatural events to show the evil effects and consequences that interference by these forces is anything but good.
Everyone has a slightly different interpretation of the supernatural but the interpretation which we can start with is Shakespeare’s. Everyone of Shakespeare’s time found the supernatural fascinating. Shakespeare interpreted the supernatural as witches, magic, unnatural and evil and he expressed his beliefs in the play, “Macbeth” very clearly, as he portrayed the three deformed women with control over the weather and the ability to predict the future. These three evil witches with magical powers were the creation of Shakespeare’s interpretation of the supernatural. Shakespeare’s contemporaries believed in the supernatural very strongly and a majority of them were frightened of it, including the king of that time, King James I of England.
Myths and religions often include divine or devilish beings with incredible powers. William Shakespeare incorporated witches with bizarre powers in his play, Macbeth. These witches possessed devilish powers to set the course of events in the plot and added to the flavor of the story. The witches' powers included omnientness, vision and apparition creation, and the ability to set the conditions for disaster, and the utilization of these abilities sets the movement of the play.
The last person you would expect to encourage you to commit a crime would be your wife. Macbeth is motivated by his wife and by three Witches and gradually becomes more ruthless, evil, and murderous as the play progresses.
It's thought that Jesus of Nazareth was born in springtime. A Pope, Julius I, chose December 25th for the celebration of his birth in the 4th century -- to include a Christian element in the long-established mid-winter festivals.
In the Shakespearean era, there was an eruption of superstition and alleged witchcraft. The people of that time had strong hatred for the ‘devil worshiping’ witches and had various trials and tests to determine their fate. Shakespeare used this as inspiration for his play ‘Macbeth’
The supernatural was a popular element in many of the plays written in Shakespeare's time (including Hamlet) and everyone of Shakespeare's time found the supernatural fascinating. Even King James I took a special interest in supernatural and written a book, Daemonologie, on witchcraft. It must be remembered that, in Shakespeare's day, supernatural referred to things that were "above Nature"; things which existed, but not part of the normal human life and unexplainable. The play Macbeth involves many supernatural actions that act as a catalyst for suspense and thrill, insight into character, foreshadowing of future events as well as making connections with the theme.