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Three Witches from Shakespeare’s Macbeth
-withered looking, crazily dressed-are clearly women but have beards-making potions, surrounding a cauldron-three witches seemed inseparable-evil, weird, abnormal looking-supernatural, magical-prophetic (based on the text)-purposeful: the reason why they were there is to meet Macbeth (based on the text)-when they left, they vanish from thin air (based on text)
Chloe Lee
Ms. Duck
ENG 181
Sep. 13, 2016
Analytic Statements & Synthesis
Lady Macbeth is usually the female character that people talk about when discussing
Shakespeare’s Macbeth. However, the first female character that appeared in the play is
actually not Lady Macbeth, but the three witches.
There are many portrayals of the witches, on stage and on screen, but they usually fall
into three categories, “ugly mortal witches, sexy siren temptresses, or supernatural beings tied
to the devil—the three females as evil incarnate” (Shamas 1). The image depicted the three
witches as the ugly moral type, possibly supernatural beings associated with devil as well, but
it is hard to tell by simply looking at the image. According to the original text, however,
Shakespeare made it very obvious that the trio is ugly, mystical, and supernatural.
When Banquo first met the three weird sisters, he described them as creatures that do
not seem to belong to Earth.
Banquo How far is ’t call’d to Forres? What are these,
So wither’d and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ the earth,
And yet are on ’t? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
(Macbeth, I.iii.39-47)
The witches clearly seemed to be women, yet the beards on their faces tell otherwise. Besides
adding to their abnormality, the fact that the witches have beards indicates an element of
possessing masculine features. They are women, yet nothing like women. When they left,
they did not exit the stage as normal human beings. Instead, the weird sisters “vanish” from
thin air. They have little or no feminine character, instead they are wild, wayward, and
unconventional, yet women.
The image showed that the three witches are making potions, surrounding a cauldron.
Based on the original text, in Act IV Scene 1, the three witches are indeed adding weird
ingredient into the cauldron.
Second Witch Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
All Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
(Macbeth, IV.i.12-21)
It is unclear what potion exactly the witches are making. However, the ingredients that they
are adding to the cauldron are very unnatural, suggesting that the potion is probably evil and
sinful. The witches also admit that such potion is “for a chram of powerful trouble, like a
hell-broth boil and bubble” (Macbth, IV.i. 18-19). Potion making is usually associated with
witches, being another element representing their rebellious nature. During Shakespeare’s
time, women were not allowed to be doctors. Potion making, which looks very similar to
medicine making, is therefore not something that female should be working on.
Obviously, as an ordinary Elizabethan man, Shakespeare believes that women
associated with potion making are evil, for that when the witches were adding weird things
into the pot, Hecate showed up and complemented on their work. Hecate, the goddess of
Ancient Greek mythology, is usually associated with magic, herbs and poisonous plants,
ghost, necromancy, as well as witchcraft. Hecate is like the incarnation of devil. The fact that
the three witches always appear as trio further proves their relationship with the devil, for that
Cerberus, the dog that guards the door to hell, is three headed.
The three witches act as the trigger of Macbeth’s sin and ambition. People usually
blame Lady Macbeth for alluring Macbeth to kill the king, yet in the very first place, it was
the trio who lured Macbeth into believing that he is meant to be king. Their prophetical
power gradually leads Macbeth to his tragedy. One might argues that the prophecy was
unintentional, yet the witches admitted in the very first scene of Macbeth that they were
“there to meet with Macbeth” (Macbeth, I.i.7). The prophecy is intentional, and their purpose
is to drag Macbeth down to hell.
However, even though the trio’s prophecy is the trigger of Macbeth’s ambition, they
should not be blamed for what that happens to Macbeth. Women who are unconventional and
independent usually fall as victim to the society because of their differences. “Because ‘the
witch’ was perceived to have magical powers beyond those of normal human agency, the
bard’s trio has a ‘double trickster’ dimension which is synthesized into their mythology, one
aspect of which is related to the general category of scapegoating (as if their potential
‘tricksterism’ was one reason that witches were persecuted)” (Shamas 30). The three witches
are simply Shakespeare’s depiction of the common image that Elizabethan men had for
rebellious women. Because they are different, they fell into the category of scapegoating—
the devil must be associated with them, whatever the men do wrong must be due to their
allurement. It is difficult to categorize witches into one single type of women, but one thing
for sure is that, they are not the type that men desired.
Bibliography
Shamas, Laura. We Three the Mythology of Shakespeare's Weird Sisters. New York: Lang,
Peter, 2012. Print.