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Witches in Macbeth
of the play. This link is further reinforced when Macbeth’s first line using the same equivocal as the witches, ‘So foul and fair a day I have not seen’.
Banquo is wary of the witches and does not really want to believe that they really because he says ‘That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth’, which adds further to their mystery because they are described as being unnatural. However, the suggestion that Macbeth is somehow acquainted with them is again shown when he talks to them directly without fear and asks 'What are you?’ Nevertheless, this shows to an extent that Macbeth also saw the witches as being unnatural because he enquires about what they are but he does not appear to be afraid.
They then avoid this question and tell Macbeth his prophecies as though this was the purpose all along. Their prophecies give rise to the question whether they knew that he was already Thane of Glamis and the next Thane of Cawdor. This adds to the mystery of the witches and provides some more evidence of the suggestion that they were well acquainted with Macbeth.
After the witches have told Macbeth his prophecies, Banquo begins to ask about himself and is told with an equivocal that his children will be Kings but he will not. I believe that during this time Macbeth is thinking deeply about what he is told because as soon as the witches have finished telling Banquo, Macbeth becomes even more inquisitive. He says to them, ‘Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more’. This tells us that he has also picked up the fact that they are speaking equivocally because he says that their speech is imperfect. Nevertheless, he asks them to tell him more, which suggests that he understands the speech of the witches, reinforcing the idea that he is well-acquainted with them and understands them. He speaks to the witches without fear and says to them ‘Speak, I charge you’. However at this point they disappear, which reinforces the mysteriousness of them and suggests that even Macbeth cannot control them, giving us the impression that they are the most powerful characters in the play.
However, Macbeth does not seem it unusual that they have disappeared and simply answers to Banquo ‘Melted, as breath in the wind. Would they had stay’d’. This reply tells us that he is more concerned with what the witches had to tell him.
He tells Banquo ‘Your children shall be Kings’, which was the one prophecy the witches told using an equivocal. This further reinforces the suggestion that Macbeth fully understands the language and nature of the witches. This conversation between Macbeth and Banquo, after the witches leave, are the first signs that tell us that Macbeth is deeply interested in the prophecies of the witches and what they had to say.
The point at which Macbeth begins to believe everything the witches tell him is when Ross tells him that he has become the Thane of Cawdor. However, Banquo is prepared to [next page]