What do the witches represent in Shakespeare’s Macbeth?
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What do the witches represent in Shakespeare’s Macbeth?
An interesting discussion in Shakespeare’s play was the role played by the witches in the events that developed. Modern society at those time regarded witches together with their craft as the abnormal force that contradicted religion and the religious setting that bled into the political framework. This play represents the essential question of myth: Does humanity regulate or have responsibility for his destiny? Shakespeare uses various supernatural features in Macbeth compared to other play he has ever written. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the three witches, sometimes referred to as the Weird Sisters, were used to investigate the philosophical question concerning predestination. The objective of this paper is to focus basically on the roles of the three witches in the play by Shakespeare.
The witches are being symbolized as beings with the supernatural power of predicting events (Shakespeare, p.119). Their capacity to predict the future precisely brings up questions about whether the occasions of Macbeth’s life are preordained or he is the expert of his destiny. Whether the events of Macbeth’s life have already been written, the witches are essentially notifying him of the future. If Macbeth can decide his destiny, this is influenced by the witches’ self-fulfilling prophecy. Shakespeare finally leaves the spectators to make their conclusion. One of the prophecies was that Macbeth was to become a king, this motivated Macbeth.
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Also, was assured that the rest of the kings would come from his bloodline, Banquo’s children. Though, the witches are symbolized as truly prophetic after precisely predict that Birnam Wood will come to Dunsinane.
The witches symbolized the darkness and wickedness of the human soul; the darkness and rain went along with the appearances of the three witches has emphasized the hatred that they had towards humanity. They used the phrase “Double, double toil and trouble” which to expressed their desire to intensify human race trials and hardships. Shakespeare additional separates the humanity from witches by deviating from the blank verse used in the entire of “Macbeth” to rhyming verses applied in the witch’s speech (Adelman, p.215).
Macbeth is obsessed with the witch’s prophecies, and he frequently consults with them. The witches symbolize a tussle between the natural world and the supernatural that is at the heart of Macbeth. Witches prophecies and dark powers influenced Macbeth to regard murder as the method to get to the throne, hence creating a bloody chaos. Hecate correctly predicted that Macbeth would visit the witches to discover his future and further says that she will use her magic in creating spirits that will drive him to his destruction (Greenblatt, p.108)
Conclusively, Shakespeare has clearly demonstrated the influence of supernatural power to human beings through the three witches in Macbeth. In the play the witches has played a big role in influencing evil in humanity, hence causing them to kill one another. The witch’s deceived human kind with some prophecies that were never fulfilled. The play has been made dominant by the witches’ evil spirits, apart from their viewing them in the negative perspective; the witches are being seen as beings who were devoted to their professionalism. In the play, the witch has been related to evil and dark spirit, especially on how they appeared. It can be learnt that if not for the existence of the witches, there would be a fair society without the bloodshed that were stimulated by false prophecies.
Work cited
Adelman, Janet. “Born of Woman”: Fantasies of Maternal Power in Macbeth. New York, Infobase, 2010.Greenblatt, Stephen. “Shakespeare Bewitched.” New Historical Literary Study: Essays on Reproducing Texts, Representing History (1993): 108-35.
Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Macbeth. Vol. 2. Classic Books Company, 2001.
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