The Presentation of Witches in Macbeth
In the opening scene of the 1978 stage version of Macbeth the first
impressions we get of the witches are that they look strange as well
as intimidating because of their facial expressions. The director has
used stage lights to focus on the three witches, by doing this the
effect is has is that it makes the witches look powerful and in
control. The director has also produced a stereotypical view of
witches as they are dressed in black and are chanting and cackling.
By doing this it makes us think that the witches are up to no good and
dangerous, as these are a few things we sometimes associate with
witches. By using thunder, lightning and rain in the opening scene
this lets us know that there could be trouble ahead in the play, as it
represents danger to come or trouble already present, for example, the
witches may be cursing someone. The atmosphere set for the rest of
the play is tense and curiosity as you feel because of the short event
that has already been seen in the opening scene will have a bad
reflection in the rest of the play.
In the 1948 Orson Wells version of Macbeth the very first impressions
we get of the witches are that they are dangerous and doing something
evil. We suspect this because we can see water bubbling up in a
cauldron quite rapidly as well as a lot of smoke and we see the body
of a baby strangled by its umbilical cord which is disturbing and sets
the scene as horrific. The video is in black and white, and even this
creates an effect of the opening scene being spooky. The director has
presented the witches in a stereotypical way as they are dressed in
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... showed the witches doing the things
they had done in the play, which was disappearing, making predictions
and essentially leading people onto the path of evil, people would’ve
believed that the witches were capable of doing these things. By
showing all this in the play, it only confirmed people’s thoughts
about witches. It also made the play more affective as people
would’ve only turned around and said something like, ‘Well, it was all
down to those witches, no surprise there.’ People ‘knew’ that witches
existed and to put them in the play and give them such a role would’ve
got people interested in the play as it was shocking to see them
disappear in the air etc. It would’ve brought many people to see the
play as it would’ve been telling people that their thoughts and
suspicions about witches was right all along.