Writing about the Witches in Macbeth

The witches are often seen as one of the most gothic things about Macbeth. To revise all about the witches, try going through these questions. If you're not sure about them, you may need to revise some key extracts

The witches appear in three scenes in Macbeth, although it may be argued that their influence stretches far beyond this space in the play. Each appearance of the witches, however, tells us important things both about Shakespeare’s attitude towards them, and about their dramatic purpose. In each scene they are closely connected to Macbeth, and his reactions to them develop his character in interesting ways.

1. How do you think the appearances of the witches relate to the events in the rest of the play? Why are they placed at these points?
2. How does Shakespeare clearly associate these characters with witchcraft in the first scene? (think of using quotations—or references to stage directions—to reinforce your ideas here)
3. When the witches reappear in scene iii, what have they been doing? How does this help to build up the audience’s sense of their evil?
4. What in the witches’ comments might remind the audience of contemporary events?
5. How does the metre that the witches speak in make their speeches distinctive?
6. In I iii, in what sense does Macbeth mean that the day has been ‘foul and fair’, do you think? Why might Shakespeare want to emphasise Macbeth’s awareness of contrast here?
7. How do Macbeth’s opening words prepare the audience for his encounter with the witches? What metre is the line in (and why might this be important?)
8. Why is it not a surprise to the audience when the witches hail Macbeth as ‘Thane of Cawdor’? What is the effect of this knowledge on how we view the ‘prophecy’?
9. Which prophecy does Macbeth seem to be more surprised by (Thane of Cawdor or King?) Why might this be?
10. What is Banquo’s reaction to the witches? How does this contrast with Macbeth’s response? How can we tell how Macbeth responds from what Banquo says?
11. Why do you think that Shakespeare differentiates the two men in this way?
12. When the witches disappear, it injects a note of the real supernatural into the play. In some productions their disappearance is made to seem more naturalistic (e.g. they go to a hidden door which only Macbeth sees). How might such direction change the ways in which the audience perceive the witches?
13. Why do you think that Banquo and Macbeth discuss the idea that the witches might be an illusion?
14. Why does Shakespeare make the two men repeat (and joke about) the prophecy?
15. What has happened between Act I and Act IV to change Macbeth’s character?
16. In the third scene where the witches feature, in Act IV, there is an extended description of their potion-making. How do the details of this help to interest the audience?
17. Why do you think that Hecate (the queen of the witches) appears in this scene?
18. What is interesting about the comment that the second witch makes just before Macbeth enters? What does it suggest about the ways in which Macbeth has changed in the interim?
19. Why is it significant that at this point Macbeth has come to seek out the witches, rather than the witches seeking him?
20. When Macbeth says that he ‘conjures’ the witches, what would this word suggest to a contemporary audience?
21. Macbeth names a number of possible natural disasters that the witches might create. How does his knowledge of these make his character seem more evil?
22. Why is it significant that Macbeth asks to hear the prophecy from the mouth of the witches’ masters, and not from the witches themselves? What would this suggest to a contemporary audience?
23. The first apparition is described as ‘an armed head’. What might this symbolise?
24. Why might the second apparition seem like ‘a bloody child’?
25. Macbeth is reassured by the prophecy that says he cannot be harmed by one ‘of woman born’, and says that he will not kill Macduff. He then almost immediately changes his mind. What does this suggest about his character, and how it has changed since the start of the play?
26. The third apparition is a crowned child. What might this suggest?
27. The third prophecy advises Macbeth not to worry about conspiracy and ‘who chafes’ under his rule. Is this good advice? What might this suggest about the apparitions?
28. Macbeth’s final words about the witches are a curse: ‘Infected be the air whereon they ride / and damn’d be all that trust them’. Why do you think he says this? How do his words and his actions conflict?
29. In Act I scene v, Lady Macbeth has a soliloquy where she talks about things that a contemporary audience would have thought to be associated with Witchcraft. How many things of this nature can you identify in this scene, and what do they suggest about Lady Macbeth?
30. Is there anything else that Macbeth or Lady Macbeth do in the play which might be associated with witchcraft? Why would Shakespeare include such actions?

Well done! You are now well equipped to write an essay about the role of the witches in Macbeth.