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Witches in Macbeth
his fubjection" (Cooper 360). According to this, Macbeth should be able to resist temptation by not giving his consent. Initially Macbeth listens to the witches, "rapt" (I.3.142), but he is able to retain the ability to act as a morally responsible person and control his ambition.
After considering that he could commit murder to achieve what the witches propose, he stifles the idea, saying, "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me/ Without my stir" (1.3.143-44). However, in the second act, he no longer attempts to stifle his conscience, but instead seems to accept the murder as an inevitable act beyond his control, saying, "I go, and it is done: the bell invites me" (2.1.70). In my opinion, when Macbeth surrenders himself to his wife's demands and tauntings, he is not bewitched but merely has succumbed to his pride.
Despite Macbeth's attempt to place the blame away from himself, Lady Macbeth retains her mortal form and temporal powers; she has simply touched on the deep-seated ambitions and greed that were already present in him (Truax 370). The fact that he no longer accepts the responsibility for his actions does not mean that the responsibility is removed, and eventually he must pay the consequences for his choice.
For most of Shakespeare's contemporary audience, Macbeth would appear to be at the mercy of the witches and therefore not entirely responsible for his actions. In my opinion, it is easier to muster sympathy for a person who is not entirely to blame for their actions; in the case of Macbeth, the tragedy is more successful if the popular seventeenth century mentality is adopted and thereby the witches and Lady Macbeth are made partly to blame for his downfall.
Macbeth’s Evil Witches
The witches are seen as being evil. This is because at the time, witches were accepted as being real and evil. Shown in the play because the first scene is thunder and lightning, which is associated with terrible happenings and things so suggests witches are terrible things. They speak in rhymes and use many equivocal terms e.g. ‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair’. This suggests reversal and unbalance, which leads to chaos and disorder in Macbeth’s life. This is suggested because they immediately mention Macbeth so he is already associated with the witches and seen as being evil. The chaos is also shown in the natural world by the weather and natural events.
Act 1 Scene 3, there is thunder when the witches meet again. The idea of them being evil is reinforced because in this scene because they are cursing a sailor. This suggests that Macbeth will also face a similar type of treatment. The mystery of the witches is increased in this scene because they know Macbeth is coming when the third witch tells the other two, ‘Macbeth doth come.’ This raises the question of how they knew he was coming and reinforces the link between Macbeth and the witches, which suggests to the audience that Macbeth is evil from the beginning of [next page]