Witchcraft in Shakespearean England had an evil effect on the people and the king, too. They feared the power of the devil and all thing witchery.Between 1560 to 1603, thousands and thousands of people were flamed to death after being convicted as witches.
King James IV was greatly convinced that witches were real and they were conspiring to murder him. Shakespeare took this advantage of this suspension of disbelief and composed the psychological tragedy, Macbeth. Witchcraft in Macbeth is not just a reflection of a pre-given order of things, but, as Stallybrass puts is, "it is a particular working upon, and legitimation of the legendary or patriarchy". If in the world of man and naturality, kingship is meant to be God's rule over the world, father's rule over the family and the head's supremacy over the body, then witchcraft established the opposite of this: where Devil rules over the earth, and the women over the family and the body over the head.
The "three Weird Sisters" or the witches were introduced into the play at the very beginning, that is Act I Scene I, where they seemed to plan their meeting with Macbeth "When the hurly-burly's done, / When the battle's lost and won." Next, they were seen at Scene III of the same Act prophesying the "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" future to Macbeth and Banquo.That future which "cannot be ill, cannot be good" yet the seed of ambition in Macbeth's chest grew with the diseased passion which drove him to madness. This scene presents the witches with ambiguity.
The witches "should be women" but their appearance was so "withered" and "wild" that they "look not like th'inhabitants o'th' earth". In fact, Lady Macbeth, whom some critics believe to be the fourth witch, welcomes the evil spirit into her bosom, praying "Come you spirits / That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here," and "Make thick my blood, / Stop th' access and passage to remorse, / And take my milk for gall,". It is that prayer which makes the evil ambition coil in her mind like a serpent ready to prey. The three witches shook the base of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's morality and conscience with just three uncertain predictions which their deeds would make true.
And then there was the Cauldron Scene where we saw the witches stiring a filthy broth with the most noxious and loathsome parts of various animals, the tooth, the scale, the sting, the maw, the gall, and the entrails. And lastly, a baboon's blood cools the whole. This entire process and ingredients confirmed us of the things that in mythology and superstition, in old philosophy are related with the darkest, cruelest elements of human nature. The witches are the embodiment of the death force, the natural representatives of the metaphysically female role of matter in the universe, "All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned."
As the most 'fertile force' in the play, the witches inhabit archaic, richly ambiguous. They play the roles of prophets and devotees of the female cult.
The witches add a significant supernatural element to Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth. Because they are not human, their prophecies take on a magical and unknown quality; a human making such predictions would likely be scoffed at or ignored, but a supernatural being like a witch may have access to information inaccessible to humans. The prophecies may reflect a force greater than human endeavor or desire because the witches choose to interact with humans rather than need to.
As well, the witches add significant literary value to the play. As characters, they add interest and an unknown element that heightens the suspense of the play. As well, their presence adds to a sense of sinister foreshadowing; the audience soon learns that when the witches are present on stage, something important and frightening will soon happen.
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