Paper 3: The Witches Quotations Flashcards
Setting: A ___ place & ___ and lightning
“___ the ___ lost and ___”
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Context:
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Setting: A desolate place & thunder and lightning
“When the battle’s lost and won”
Theme: Sense of mystery, supernatural, evil
Context: Supernatural and evil
Techniques: Foreshadowing emphasises supernatural force (Macbeths future - he will win the battle in attempt to becoming king, but loose his wife, nobility and sanity), setting associated with evil and danger, paradox (lost and won), equivocation (lost and won), stage craft - allows for a dramatic entrance
Extra: 1.1 The witches make their prediction about Macbeths future. Macbeth will be victorious but each victory will lead to more losses, explained through the paradox/equivocation
Setting: A desolate ___ & thunder and ___
___ “Fair is ___ and foul is ___”
Theme:
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Setting: A desolate place & thunder and lightning
ALL “Fair is foul and foul is fair”
Theme: Evil, supernatural, mystery, setting, villainy, danger
Context: Supernatural
Techniques: Fricative alliteration, paradox, foreshadowing, setting
Extra: The phrase “Fair is Foul, Foul is Fair”, 1.1, is chanted by the three witches at the beginning of the play. It acts as a summary and prediction of what is it come in the future of the play. It refers to sudden contraries, or reversal: something seems fair and then is revealed to be foul, or something seems foul and then we realize it’s fair.
___: A ___ and thunder
___: “You should be ___ and ___ your ___ forbid me to ___”
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Setting: A heath and thunder
BANQUO: “You should be women and yet your beards forbid me to interpret”
Theme: Supernatural, evil, mysterious, appearance vs reality, detective work, setting
Context: Supernatural
Techniques: Their facial hair symbolizes their influence in the affairs of the male-dominated warrior society of Scotland. Critics see the witches and the question of their gender as a device Shakespeare uses to criticise the male-dominated culture. Auxiliary verb ‘should’.
Extra: Macbeth and Banquo meet the Witches in 1.3
Setting: A ___ and thunder
___: “___, you ___ speakers. ___ me more”
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Setting: A heath and thunder
MACBETH: “Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more”
Theme: Manipulation, ambition, hamartia, detective work, mystery, birth of motive.
Context: Supernatural
Techniques: Imperative verb, adjective - disbelief yet intrigued, short sentence
Extra: 1.3 Macbeth is desperate to know more information, the Witches have captured his full attention. Macbeth is still uncertain of what they are telling him, he needed more guidance from them.
Setting: A ___ and thunder
“All ___ Macbeth, that shalt be ___ ___”
First Witch “Hail”
Second Witch “___”
Third Witch “Hail”
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Setting: A heath and thunder
“All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter”
First Witch “Hail”
Second Witch “Hail”
Third Witch “Hail”
Theme: Motive, mystery, supernatural, evil
Context: Supernatural
Techniques: Anaphora ‘hail hail hail’ - poetic, imperative verb, verb ‘shalt’ - assertive/guarantee, declarative sentence announcing it as if its a fact.
Extra: 1.3
Setting: A ___ and thunder
“___ than Macbeth, and ___”
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Setting: A heath and thunder
“Lesser than Macbeth, and greater”
Theme: Supernatural, mystery, motive, villainy, hamartia
Context: Supernatural
Techniques: Chiasmus (inversion of grammer reflects how thir prophecy is going to invert things and turn them upside down), paradox
Extra: 1.3 The Witches the prophecy “lesser than Macbeth, and greater” implies that while Banquo himself will never be king and thus always will be “lesser than Macbeth”, Banquo will become “greater” than Macbeth because his son and his son’s sons will be kings.
___: A ___ and thunder
“Ill ___ him dry as ___: ___ shall ___ night nor day”
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Extra:
- Setting: A heath and thunder
- “Ill drain him dry as hay: sleep shall neither night nor day”
Theme: Villainy, mystery, evil, setting, death, justice
Context:
Techniques: Simile, sexual imagery (drain him from his ability from perform sexually or draining him from his ability to sleep/relax), metaphor
Extra: Witches describing their first act of vengeance in 1.3. on a sailor, cursing him because his wife wouldn’t give the witches chestnuts.
___: A ___ place near ___
“___, double ___ and ___, fire ___ and ___ bubble”
Stage direction ‘Enter ___ and the three Witches’
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Setting: A desolate place near Forres
“Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble”
Stage direction ‘Enter HECATE and the three Witches’
Theme: Evil, villainy
Context: Supernatural
Techniques: Rhyming couplet (sounds like a spell/plotting due to its sing-song rhythm), alliteration, foreshadowing, setting ‘Forres’ is where king Duncan used to live - once murdered, the new King Macbeth and his wife move to Forres (emphasise mystery, danger and how one is incapable of escaping the Witches)
Extra: 4.1 The witches are saying that twice (double) the amount of trouble will now be brought on Macbeth. He’s in big trouble for killing everyone on his way to the crown. The witches know it will not end well for him. Hecate is the goddess of witchcraft, and one can view her as the ruler of the Three Witches.
Critical quotation:
“The witches inhabit an anarchic, richly ambitious zone both in and out of official society; they live in their own world” - Cakebread
Critical quotation:
“The witches inhabit an anarchic, richly ambitious zone both in and out of official society; they live in their own world” - Cakebread
Summarise the character of the Witches
The “weird sisters” open the play in thunder and lightning. Throughout the play, whenever the witches appear, there is thunder, rain, or some kind of bad weather that precedes them. The stormy weather associated with the witches symbolises how their powers stir up trouble, incite chaos, and go against the natural order. They reveal their prophecy to Macbeth and Banquo in 1.3. Their ruler Hecate makes an appearance in 3.5.
Explain what the Witches prophesied for Macbeth and Banquo
The witches hail Macbeth first by his title Thane of Glamis, then as Thane of Cawdor and finally as king. They then prophesy that Banquo’s children will become kings. Macbeth demands to know more but the witches vanish. Ross and Angus arrive to tell Macbeth that he has been given the title Thane of Cawdor by Duncan.
Why is the setting significant in the presence of the witches
Pathetic fallacy which foreshadows the unsettling of the great chain of being.
