witches Flashcards
overview
The purpose of the witches are to influence Macbeths decisions throughout the play through manipulation and the use of the prophecies. These lead to Macbeth killing Duncan to become King. The witches also help to show Macbeths true nature which is that he is ambitious and evil in contrast to Banquo who could’ve gone down the same path as Macbeth but didn’t because he is good. Finally, the witches make Macbeth feel invincible when he becomes reliant on them and the prophecies which leads to his downfall.
A1
- When the play opens there is thunder and lighting. Shakespeare uses pathetic fallacy to suggest how the witches are ominous and threatening like the dangerous weather. This could be Shakespeare warning the audience of how evil the witches truly are.
- The witches say ‘fair is foul and foul is fair.’ The witches are saying that good is bad and bad is good. The dual nature of the witches is shown through their language and how they speak in riddles. This suggests how the witches are good at manipulation and twisting the truth because they don’t speak in a direct way.
- M says for the witches to ‘tell me more’ after they give him the prophecies – Glamis, Cawdor, King. This suggests how he is immediately interested in the prophecies and the use of the command ‘tell’ suggests how he is desperate to know more information.
- B asks for his own set of prophecies but says that he ‘neither beg nor fear your favours nor your hate.’ This suggests how B is curious about the prophecies and his future but he is unaffected by them because he doesn’t ‘beg’ for them. Therefore, he is not desperate to know. B is a foil to M because he is not affected by the witches and his automatic distrust towards the witches emphasises the difference between M, who is evil and B who is good.
- When M and B return M is given the title of TOC which makes him wonder why he ‘yields’ to that ‘horrid image.’ By becoming TOC it sparks his thoughts of killing Duncan which is the ‘horrid image’ because one of the witches prophecies has already come true so he trusts in the witches even more now. The word ‘yield’ suggests how he is already giving in to temptation.
- LM is told about the prophecies through the letter M sends. After reading the letter she calls for evil spirits to ‘unsex me.’ This suggests how she immediately believes in the prophecies because she takes such drastic measure to help M without any doubt or hesitation.
A3
- B is thinking about his own prophecies – he will have sons who are kings. He is questioning if they are true but tells himself ‘hush, no more.’ The word ‘hush’ suggests how he is silencing those thoughts and pushing down his temptation. This is a contrast to M who has acted on temptation and is significant because B is still not swayed by the words of the witches.
- M reflects on B’s prophecies and how he will have a line of kings. However, M’s crown is ‘fruitless.’ This metaphor of having a fruitless crown suggests how M will have no heirs or sons to carry out his line. This makes M angry so he decides to ‘fight fate’ and go against the prophecies by killing B and Fleance. This suggests M’s desperation to stay king but also his naivety to try and go against the witches who are very powerful.
A4
M seeks reassurance from the witches because he is desperate for more information. He says ‘I conjure you’ and is commanding them to appear. This suggests how naïve M is for thinking that he is more powerful than them and has the ability to summon them.
- M is given the three new prophecies – he is told that ‘none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’ which makes M feel safe because he believes that he can’t be killed. He asks the witches ‘what need I fear of thee’ and ‘thee’ being Macduff. Therefore, this suggests he no longer fears Macduff.
- The third prophecy is that he won’t be killed until Birnam wood moves to Dunsinane. M’s reaction to this prophecy is ‘that will never be’ which suggests how he is convinced of his safety because woods can’t move. M now believes that he is invincible which leads him to forget about the 1st prophecy which was to beware Macduff. The witches have manipulated him into thinking he is safe
- This leads him to behave more recklessly and he says that ‘the firstlings of my heart shall be the firstlings of my hand.’ This means that the first thing that he thinks and wants to do he will do no matter how impulsive it may be.
A5
- He tells his servants to ‘bring me no more reports.’ M is completely reliant on the witches now and giving up strategy and war tactics because of his trust in them. He does not want to know what is going on which suggests how he believes he is safe.
- Even when he sees Birnam wood begin to move he chooses to rely on the second prophecy until Macduff reveals how he was ‘ripped’ from his mother and not conceived naturally. This leads M to call the witches ‘juggling fiends’ which suggests how he realises the witches are evil and have been playing with him.
