Control/Witches Flashcards
“beware Macduff”, “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” and “Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until / Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him”
The Witches make further predictions, through the forms of apparitions which appear before Macbeth: “beware Macduff”, “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” and “Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until / Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him”. This scene demonstrates the immense power that the Witches and their prophecies hold over Macbeth.
“Though his bark cannot be lost, / Yet it shall be tempest-tossed,”
The Witches are dependent on Macbeth to fulfill their prophecies. It was believed that witches were unable to directly kill man so instead they had to control others to create the disorder and chaos they wished to impart on mankind. The Witches refer to a story about a sailor. The rhyming couplet “Though his bark cannot be lost, / Yet it shall be tempest-tossed,” shows the audience the limited power they have over man. They cannot directly destroy his ship, but instead they can cause a storm to occur.
“something wicked this way comes”
The Witches can’t kill Duncan themselves but instead they have the power to influence the men around him. It could therefore be argued that Macbeth becomes their puppet and vehicle for evil. Their prophecies cause Macbeth to realise his own entrenched ambitions and then inspire him to act upon it. It is their suggestion and temptation that triggers his fall. Perhaps Macbeth is a greater force of evil than the Witches as he is the one who physically carries out the act of regicide. Indeed, they recognise “something wicked this way comes”.
“when the battle’s lost and won”
“what he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won”
“so clear in his great office”,
Though they never meet, King Duncan linguistically echoes the witches in speech (unwittingly) as he exclaims “when the battle’s lost and won”, which is Shakespeare using parallelism (repeated grammatical structure) to echo the Witches, who state “what he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won”. This shows how the witches exert control over all aspects of the world – even the king. Furthermore, this alleviates responsibility from Macbeth as suspicions of King Duncan’s divineness is not necessarily only due to innate evil that the Witches have encouraged within him. Duncan is presented as the pinnacle of virtue as he is “so clear in his great office”, yet he is still susceptible to the witches control as shown by this use of parallelism.
“Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, greater than both by the all hail hereafter”.
“hail Macbeth thane of Glamis/Cawdor/thou shalt be king hereafter”
Lady Macbeth defies gender roles as she is dominant in her relationship with Macbeth, which was often all the justification needed to convict a woman of witchcraft. She becomes the proxy of the witches to maintain their evil influence over Macbeth. This is shown as she greets him in the same way as the witches did which implies a form of connection: Lady Macbeth - “Great Glamis, worthy Cawdor, greater than both by the all hail hereafter”. The Witches “hail Macbeth thane of Glamis/Cawdor/thou shalt be king hereafter”
”imperfect speakers”
However, Macbeth listens to them and their prophecies anyway because he wants what they say to be true. They speak in riddles that are meant to be misunderstood and Macbeth chooses to ignore this as his greed for power overcomes him. Therefore, it could be argued that they are not controlling fate, rather they are allowing Macbeth to gain validation of the desires he already has. Their words are vague and ambiguous because they are not a source of control but a source of temptation. Macbeth interprets their speech to suit his pre-existing desires and therefore it could be argued that Macbeth twists their prophecies in order to further his own agenda of power.
