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.