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Thursday, April 19, 2007

Macbeth- what role do the witches play in Macbeth?

Bismillah arahman araheem

Ok, well here is my essay on the witches in Macbeth. I got the highest grade ever in this mashallah, and it was the highlight of my academic career-well has been so far...mashallah. It is the first ever A* i have had in my life and so means alot to me, so i want to share it. I hope you like it inshallah.

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Macbeth is a play written by William Shakespeare in 1603 for king James 1’s pleasure. William Shakespeare knew of James 1’s curiosity in witchcraft and so to please James I, he revolved the play about witches so that it was more than appealing to the king. This is why witchcraft and violence are both huge contributors to the play. Macbeth is a play that conveys violence with its graphic images of treason and murder. James I holds a personal interest in witchcraft and has himself written three books about them, one being ‘Demonology’ in 1603. The witches in Macbeth play a major role in the drama for this reason. They can predict the future with their familiars and vanish like we are shown at the beginning of the play. The witches also relate to the moral, religious, social and historical aspects of the play. By studying them, you can begin to understand the extent of Shakespeare’s originality and apprehension along with James I fascination with witchcraft. At the time when this play was written, there was a big problem in society with witchcraft, which continued to develop in to a real social crisis.

James 1’s interest in witchcraft was evident by his writing of several books on the subject. In 1604, witchcraft became punishable through many cruel and unusual methods, such as being hanged, or even worse, being sawed. Other horrible punishments were popular, such as the Heretics fork which was a fork shaped metal, which was screwed to the person’s neck, and this fork would stay there for a few days and then the person would be paraded on the streets to be humiliated and had missiles thrown at them.

A witch was portrayed as a very powerful and ugly creature. The Elizabethan people were very superstitious and so when they saw a person, usually female, doing something strange, she was considered a witch. James 1 was convinced that witches were evil especially since he said that a witch called Agnis Tompson had tried to kill him. That woman confessed herself that she tried to kill him by shipwreck off the coast of Scotland and that the king would have not survived if his faith had not prevailed. On his way back to Scotland, the king’s ship experienced bad weather whilst the others did not and so he ordered seven witches including Agnis Tompson to be burnt at the stake and because of this, parliament passed an act which would punish anyone found practising witchcraft.

Shakespeare’s ideas for Macbeth went back as far as Plato and Aristotle’s, where he used the ideas in one of his third longest tragedies ‘Troilus and Cressida’ (3496 pages) which is about the Trojan war where Ulysses( a Greek commander in ‘Troilus and Cressida’) described the order of the universe as being like a “ladder”. Ulysses hinted at the chaos that results from disturbing the ‘natural’ order of things. This ‘natural’ order of things is disturbed in Macbeth when Macbeth kills King Duncan because the ‘natural’ order of things includes the ‘great chain of being’.

The ‘great chain of being’ is a metaphor for the divinity of the lord who ranks everything in order of perfection with God himself being first. In the 17th and 18th Century the ‘great chain of being’ was taken very seriously. This is where the ‘divine rights of kings’ came from. The king was considered high up in the rankings of perfection and so he was hypothetically god’s representative. The ‘great chain of being’ believes in the right order of things which is only disturbed by bad deeds, in this case, the killing of King Duncan. The belief was and still maybe is that the ‘great chain of being’ includes everything, absolutely everything, from birds to plants and even witches who were at the bottom of the chain along with the devil. The witches are an evil personification of the devil.

Witches looked hideous and weren’t considered human like. They were seen as old, wrinkly skinned, dried lipped creatures whose chins met their knees. As well as looking revolting, they also possessed many powers as said in James 1 book, ’Demonology’,
“They can raise storms and tempest in the air either upon sea or land, though not universally, but in such prescribed bounds as god will permit them”.
This is witnessed by the audience because before the witches enter any scene in Macbeth, there is always “Thunder and Lightening”. The thunder and lightening represent the evil and destruction that the witches bring about whence raising storms, not just in the terms of weather but also as in the way of raising chaos in the world. We also see that regardless of the witch’s influences, Banquo doesn’t become influenced because he is pious and so God does not let the witches powers take over Banquo because Banquo trusts the Lord. The power of faith is shown here.
This may even have made the audience feel that they need to turn to God otherwise they might end up with a bad or worse fate than Macbeth.

Macbeth’s character is as an honoured and valiant Scottish warrior who has just won his greatest battle and the title of Thane of Cawdor. Unfortunately, shortly after the battle, he meets three evil witches who plant the seed of ambition in his soul when they predict he will become the King of Scotland. This seed of purpose grew in Macbeth and he committed crimes as a means to protect himself from being founded and in this he kills Duncan and his dear friend Banquo. Banquo explained to Macbeth that sometimes witches, using equivocation and prophecies, turn humans bad.
“But tis strange,
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths;
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequences.”

When he becomes king, Scotland becomes chaotic and he looses the plot when in the climax of the play, he sees apparitions at the banquet. He starts to talk to himself; fore he can no longer hide his guilt, “"Thou canst say I did it." This play ends naturally when Macduff kills Macbeth and Malcolm takes his rightfully owned crown on the throne of Scotland.

The witches play a major role in Macbeth. They can vanish and predict. They are like apparitions. We are shown the witches powers at the beginning of the play where firstly the atmosphere is described as dangerous through the weather, so already we are told that something bad is about to happen, “Thunder and lightning, Enter three witches”. That was just the beginning sentence to the play which must have had the audiences curious. We are shown that they can predict,
Where the place
Upon the heath
There to meet Macbeth”.
Now we know that Macbeth is damned from the start. The witches then begin to chant in confusing and vague language and Macbeth is mentioned again and the audiences anticipation grows stronger and they get introduced to Macbeth through the line, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen” Act 1 scene 3. This repetition of the witch’s last words by Macbeth shows us that he is already, though he is not aware of it, connected with the witches,
“Fair is foul and foul is fair
Hover through the fog and filthy air”.


At the start of scene three again there is thunder which shows us that the witches are evil, dramatic and dangerous like the thunder. To the witches all good is disgusting and all evil is attractive, storm and foul weather make the most complimentary setting for their work. The witches wickedness is all apparent through the activities they get up to in their spare time by collecting momentums and getting rid of the believers (in god) relatives,
“Here I have a pilots thumb”, and
“He shall live a man forbid” and “killing swine”.

As well as passing their time with getting up to evil and appalling things, we are also told of the witches appearances by Banquo who is a close friend of Macbeths. The Weird Sisters are described as not even looking like women at all in his description. They are so skinny and unfeminine that on seeing them Banquo says,
“So withered and so wild in their attire
That look not like th’inhabitants o’th’earth
Choppy finger lying
Upon her skinny lips. You should be women
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret”.

The witches were instructed and many controlled by familiars or imps who took the form of animals, mainly of cats, some dogs, toads or ravens. The familiars helped the witches to see in to the future. Familiars had weird names like Newes, Ilemauzar, Pyewackett and many more. In Act four, scene 1, the witches enter the stage when there is thunder. They start chanting in rhymes whilst circling a cauldron as in a witch’s Sabbath (a midnight meeting of witches to practice witchcraft and sorcery; in the Middle Ages it was supposed to be a demonic orgy.)
As the witches walked around, they would throw in such ghoulish things like,
“Eye of Newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind- worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlets wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell- broth, boil and bubble”.
The witches are stirring in all there ghastly ingredients for a spell to cause chaos. The witches use a familiar in this scene called Harpier who cries to them that it is time to make up the spell because the “cat hath mewed” and the “hedge- pig whined”,
“ Harpier cries ‘Tis time, ‘Tis time”.
Whence telling the audience that familiars really can tell the future if they know that it is time to stir up the spell. The audience at this point are bound to be disgusted yet amazed.

If noticed then it is obvious that the witches speak in trochaic metre which is varied. This gives their speech the effect of an incantation and distinguishes it from the largely iambic speech of other characters.

Ultimately the witches’ role in the play Macbeth is too great and deep but I hope I have got the message across that the weird sisters are the backbone of the play. It is because of the influence of their spells and evil magic that the play ends with such tragic consequences. I have enjoyed reading this play and understanding it and James I would have as well. I have written this essay with as much enthusiasm as I could and I anticipate that the reader will also enjoy reading this essay.

11 Comments:

  • At 1:28 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    jazakom allh khiran
    please if u have any other materials about the great chain of bein in macbeth and disorder in the same play.
    post it.

     
  • At 10:54 AM, Blogger DeletedAcc.1 said…

    Fantastic piece here. Well worth the high grade, I was really impressed with your logical and rational approach to the theme and question.

    And a nice style of writing which was informative and concise.

     
  • At 12:21 PM, Blogger zee said…

    zrbdst apprch

     
  • At 12:24 PM, Blogger zee said…

    masha allah bht keen & zbrdst apprch h apki... macbeth k bray ma r kuch b pta h to share kay

     
  • At 12:24 PM, Blogger zee said…

    masha allah zbrdt n outstndg effrt h..........

     
  • At 12:26 PM, Blogger zee said…

    masha allah zbrdt n outstndg effrt h..........

     
  • At 9:23 PM, Blogger مـ،،،اجـ،،،دة said…

    ما شاء الله...
    Great Job

     
  • At 9:24 PM, Blogger مـ،،،اجـ،،،دة said…

    MashaAllah..Great Job

     
  • At 9:24 PM, Blogger مـ،،،اجـ،،،دة said…

    MashaAllah..Great Job

     
  • At 7:57 AM, Blogger Bubbles XD said…

    THANKS FOR...D POST..IT WAS WORTH READING !!

     
  • At 2:22 AM, Blogger Unknown said…

    I have just read your blogg, very interesting and have enjoyed it. As i am doing a short essay about the role of the witches in Macbeth. I didnt come cross how to described the chanting the withces would do such as chanting in a rhym. Any info would be much appreciated.

    Thanks Naz

     

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