MACBETH

2) Characterize the witches and explain the role they play in Macbeth.
Belief in magic and witchcraft in ghosts, fairies and spirits interfering in human affairs and controlling the destinies of men was almost universal in the days of Shakespeare. We have no means of knowing whether Shakespeare himself believed in them or not. But he made capital out of the popular belief by turning it to artistic use in his play. The supernatural is introduced by him to impart an element of mystery and spiritual significance to the pictures of human life, though latter generations with more rational outlook have askance at them or regarded them with twitter. Shakespeare satisfied the taste of his by depicting the witches in their crude form. They are women, yet they have beards. They have skinny lips and choppy fingers. They speak like human beings. They vanish into the air like earths bubbles. Evil is a past time with them. Thunder, lightning and rain accompany them. The atmosphere is bewitched by their presence. Yet Shakespeares witches are more than that. They represent the invisible forces that play no small a part in shaping the destiny of man. They are visible symbols of the evils working in man. They also play the role of Fate or Nemesis in bringing about the rain of a man by giving him a false sense of security by equivocations. The witches of Shakespeare are a combination of Holinsheds weird sisters and wizards and of Fate and Nemesis of Greek Mythology. They are Shakespearean in the prearranged harmony between them and the evil thoughts and workings in man. The weird sisters of Macbeth are mystery personified. They will meet again we do not know why. They will

meet Macbeth whom we do not as yet know. They will meet him when the battle is lost and won---an enigma expressed in epigrammatic language. We do not know this battle, we do not know how it is lost and at the same time won. Mystery deepens. The witches create terror in our mind by their response to the cats mew and the toads call. We have glimpse of some foreboding evil. To them fair is foul, and foul is fair. They hover through the air like filthy air. Next we meet the weird sisters in their pastime. Evil is the core of their pastime. They kill swine. They punish the sailor whose wife refuses them chestnuts. They dance and dance round the cauldron boiling with poison and rotten things. They thus create a charm. Into this charmed circle enter Macbeth and Banquo. Macbeths opening words are So fair and foul a day I have not seen. They are the echo of the words of the witches in the opening scene of the play. There is thus a pre-arranged affinity between Macbeth and the witches who are his spiritual sisters, so to say. The three witches know the future. Yet they do not play the role of Fates when they first meet Macbeth. They predict Macbeth will be thane of Cawdor and king of Scotland. They say Banquo will be father of kings. They do not tempt Macbeth or Banquo. The prophecy of Macbeth being the thane of Cawdor is fulfilled almost instantaneously. Macbeth now tempts himself to be the king of Scotland, and takes initiative of murder, to fulfill the prophecy of the witches. Banquo calls them instruments of darkness who win men with honest trifles only to betray them in deepest consequence. This proves to be true in the course of the action of the drama. Banquo may have some dreams about the witches and may hope to be the father of kings. But he does not tempt himself to crime. Macbeth kills Duncan and becomes king. The prophecy of the witches is fulfilled. But there is another part of the prophecy that relates to Banquo. And Macbeth wants to undo the prophecy by killing Banquo and his son, Fleance. Banquo is killed but Fleance escapes. The murder is out of tune. In the banquet scene Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo

and perhaps of Duncan as well and is perturbed. He resolves to go to the weird sisters to take instructions from instruments of darkness. Macbeth meets the weird sisters at the stage, while at the beginning it was the weird sisters who had met him. The weird sisters give him a false sense of security. They mislead him with equivocations of no man born of woman having any power to do him harm, and of his remaining unvanquished before Birnam wood coming to Dunsinane castle. They also suggest to beware of Macduff. They may or may not be sisters of destiny. Macbeth does not care. He misses the person of Macduff but kills his family. This is not suggested by the witches. Macbeth acts as a free agent to work out his ruin. Only he does not know why he does so, why Bellonas bridegroom is turning into a hellhound, why he cannot sleep and rest. The play is covered with the darkness smoke to hell. The witches are the hellish nightmare actualized in the world of men. The whole atmosphere is charged with them whether they are visible or invisible. And the witches give a unity to this bewitched atmosphere of the play. -----------------0-----------------