Proceedings of Research Papers Presented At The National Research Seminar In
English On “Widening Canvas Of Literature” Held On 03rd And 04th December, 2015
The Role of Witchcraft in Macbeth
Dr. Renu Sinha
Asst. Professor in English
S.A.B.V. G.A.C.College Indore (M.P)
Abstract
Macbeth, a tragedy written by Shakespeare is called by many a cursed drama for inclusion of
spoken spells. Macbeth, a duke of Scotland, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that
one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his
wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself. Macbeth is renowned not
just for its savage, coruscating take on murderous ambition but also for carrying a curse. The
casting spell for witchcraft is actually written in this play, thus making it the scariest plays off
the stage as well.
Key Words: Witchcraft, cultures, mystical powers, prophecies, obsessed with the
supernatural, number three, giving into evil, to know by the worst means the worst
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and
throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the
similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread
across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive
people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft
occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to
assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about
witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are
the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight
some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the
world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
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First of all, throughout many cultures, physical characteristics associated with witches
ring strangely the same. Anthropologist Philip Mayer says that witches typically bear a
physical stigma, like a red eye for example (Mayer 56). In the Brother's Grimm fairytale
"Hansel and Gretel," the witch shares this same beastly characteristic. Also, people usually
cast off as witches are typically always old women. In Slovakia, Milan Mramuch accused his
elderly neighbor of witchcraft and allegedly beat the old woman to death (Whitmore). In
"Hansel and Gretel" the witch who lives in the tempting, candy house is an old crippled
woman and in the Brother's Grimm fairytale "Snow White," the witch, who was an elegant
queen, performs her craft disguised as an old peasant woman.
A second characteristic of witches - and what witches are most commonly known for - is
that they cause horrible misfortune to their neighbors and others close to them. Death,
sickness, and weather disasters are examples of natural occurrences that witches cause are
often blamed for, especially when the occurrences seem strange or out of the ordinary. They
can cause this harm simply by willing it to happen. "The witch only has to wish you harm,
and the harm is as good as done" (Mayer 56). In Slovakia, Mramuch, who killed his neighbor
Anna Tomkova, did so because he suspected the woman of casting a spell on his
granddaughter. It was the only answer Mramuch had to counter his granddaughter's sudden
suffering of epileptic seizures (Whitmore). In South Africa, Mmatiou Thantsa was accused of
witchcraft and summoning lightning (Keller). Witches are often blamed for "particular and
unaccountable blows that seem somehow out of the common run" (Mayer 56).
Thirdly, personality characteristics associated with witches are that they are private and
quarrelsome people and they often are motivated to hurt others by malice or spite (Mayer 56).
The witch in "Hansel and Gretel" led a private life. She lived alone in her house in the middle
of the forest. When her young guests Hansel and Gretel did arrive, she was more concerned
with eating them than greeting them. I've always formed my opinions about witches around
this stereotype. Witches I've imagined live on the top of a mountain buried behind trees and
hidden behind a locked door. Regarding witches' typically envious and crabby nature, in
"Snow White" the witch was quarrelsome with Snow White with whom she was jealous of.
The witch, Snow White's stepmother, sent Snow White away to be killed because she was
more beautiful than she, the Queen was.
Fourthly, witches are believed not to be entirely human. Their mystical powers are viewed
as non-human. A human cannot use his or her willpower to kill or hurt someone, nor to wash
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the dishes or pick up the laundry. Because witches are believed to be able to use their
willpower to cause calamities in the world, most believe they incorporate something nonhuman (Mayer 56). Tying in with the physical characteristics associated with witches,
witches are said to have a keen sense of smell comparable to that of an animal. In "Hansel
and Gretel," the witch only knew the children were there when they were close enough for
her to smell.
Lastly, witches always work in reverse order. As often as one witch can cast a spell on
someone, another witch can reverse that spell. Things commonly understood are that witches
may talk backward or walk backwards. Christians who have accused people of being witches
believed they have heard repeating prayers in reverse order. "Even when they knock on your
door they stand backwards; or when they ride on baboons, as the Pondo witches do, the face
towards the tail" (Mayer 56). Witches even can reverse social standards as the rest of the
public views it. Cannibalism is one example of a social standard that is not often spoken of
because it is viewed as so animalistic. In both of the fairytales "Hansel and Gretel" and
"Snow White," the witches reversed all common social order by wanting to eat human flesh.
In "Snow White" the witch eats what she believes is Snow White's liver and in "Hansel and
Gretel" the witch captured the children with the desire to cook and eat them.
Witchcraft ideas and their parallels around the world are easily told when examining
the tales and counts of the world's people. I agree that the ideas cannot be tossed aside as
mere coincidences and because they are too numerous. Even more remarkable are the similar
accounts that come from different corners of the world. Both the Pueblo Indians in Mexico
and the Bantu Tribe in Kenya have told of witches traveling at night, carrying lights that
mysteriously flare up and down (Mayer 55). These peoples have most likely never met and
did not know about the similar experiences they share. Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, their
stories tell me there is some investigable truth to what they tell. Many things are strikingly
similar in fairytales about witches and true accounts of people accused of witchcraft.
In Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, witchcraft plays a huge part. The whole play is
strung together by the prophecies the witches make. The play was most likely written
between 1605 and 1606 and produced between 1606 and 1611. Throughout Shakespeare's
life, witchcraft was a big fascination. Persecutions reached terrifying proportions
between 1560 and 1603, hundreds of people, mostly women, were convicted as witches and
were executed. Most people believed in witches but Shakespeare himself was a non-believer
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and thought them to be 'poppycock'. Shakespeare used witches to promote his play to
the audience, especially the likes of King James I. King James had a fascination with witches
and in 1597 he wrote a book called 'Demonologie'.
In the 1600s James I took part in witchcraft ceremonies was obsessed with the supernatural,
Scotland was one of the most active countries in hunting and killing witches. There were
4,400 'witches' executed between 1590 and 1680. In 1604 William Shakespeare in his zeal to
please King James I, an authority on demonology, cast caution and imagination aside and for
the opening scene of Macbeth's Act IV when he reproduced a 17th century black-magic
ritual, a sort of how-to to budding witches. Without changing an ingredient, he provided his
audience with step-by-step instructions in the furtive art of spell casting:
Round around the cauldron go;
In the poison'd entrails throw.
Toad, that under cold stone
Days and nights has thirty-one
Swelter'd venum sleeping got.
Boil thou first i' the charmed pot…
The ritual's practitioners were not amused by this detailed public exposure of their
witchcraft, and it is said that as punishment they cast an everlasting spell on the play, turning
it into the most ill-starred of all theatrical productions.
The superstition seems to have arisen, in part, from the play's depiction of witchcraft,
still a vital (though contested) belief in 1606, when the play was first performed. Macbeth
was believed to flirt dangerously with the Powers of Evil, bringing catastrophe down upon
productions over the succeeding centuries. It was believed that witches had many powers,
they could speak with the devil, speak to the dead, make people fall ill and die, and they
could fly, become invisible, issue bad weather and even allow the devil to suck their blood in
return for a familiar. The familiars were believed to be cats or other small animals that
represented the devil or evil spirits.
At the very beginning of the play the witches are introduced before any of the other
characters this gives us the feeling that they are going to be a major part of Macbeth.
Throughout the play, the witches—referred to as the “weird sisters” by many of the
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characters—lurk like dark thoughts and unconscious temptations to evil. In part, the mischief
they cause stems from their supernatural powers, but mainly it is the result of their
understanding of the weaknesses of their specific interlocutors—they play upon Macbeth’s
ambition like puppeteers.
The witches’ beards, bizarre potions, and rhymed speech make them seem slightly ridiculous,
like caricatures of the supernatural. Shakespeare has them speak in rhyming couplets
throughout (their most famous line is probably “Double, double, toil and trouble, / Fire burn
and cauldron bubble” (Macbeth, Act 4. Scene 1. Lines10–11), which separates them from the
other characters, who mostly speak in blank verse. The witches’ words seem almost comical,
like malevolent nursery rhymes. Despite the absurdity of their “eye of newt and toe of frog”
recipes, however, they are clearly the most dangerous characters in the play, being both
tremendously powerful and utterly wicked (Macbeth, Act 4.Scene1 line-14).
The audience is left to ask whether the witches are independent agents toying with human
lives, or agents of fate, whose prophecies are only reports of the inevitable. The witches bear
a striking and obviously intentional resemblance to the Fates, female characters in both Norse
and Greek mythologies who weave the fabric of human live and then cut the threads to end
them. Some of their prophecies seem self-fulfilling. For example, it is doubtful that Macbeth
would have murdered his king without the push given by the witches’ predictions. In other
cases, though, their prophecies are just remarkably accurate readings of the future—it is hard
to see Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane as being self-fulfilling in any way. The play offers
no easy answers. Instead, Shakespeare keeps the witches well outside the limits of human
comprehension. They embody an unreasoning, instinctive evil.
They enter in from the heath. In olden day plays, and even most modern, the weather
conditions are used to reflect the mood and actions of a character. The play begins
with thunder and lightning as they three witches enter. Throughout Shakespeare's life, witches
and witchcraft were the objects of morbid and fevered fascination. A veritable witchmania characterized the reign of Elizabeth I and persecution reached terrifying proportions.
Act 1 scene one opens with thunder and lightning, which on stage would open the
play in a dramatic way with loud noises and flashes of light. This would immediately capture
the audience's attention and they would be focusing on the stage as the witches appear. The
thunder and lightning create a frightening and menacing atmosphere and this sets the tone for
the horrifying events that are about to unfold on the stage. The mood and atmosphere are set
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in this way but the effect of this scene is wider than simply the setting of mood
and atmosphere. It also gives us information about the events that occur later on in the play. It
seems that the play opens while a battle is raging and the three witches will meet again when
it is all over. They seem to have foreknowledge that that will be before the end of the
day. The name of Macbeth is introduced and a connection is therefore established between
themselves and Macbeth. Their closing lines,
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair Hover through the fog and filthy air,"
It gives us a major clue to what the witches' objectives are. They find whatever good, evil is
and whatever is evil they find good. They seek therefore, to turn goodness into evil and this
directly links to the events concerning Macbeth that develop in the play. They begin
chanting about how they are going to meet next upon the heath were Macbeth will be. They
then disappear.
"Where the place? "
"Upon the heath."
"There to meet with Macbeth."
(Macbeth, Act I Scene I lines 6-8 )
The play begins with the three witches making a prediction of Macbeth's life at first he takes
this prediction light hearted and does not believe it, until the first prediction comes true. He
then becomes dependent upon the witches predictions and does everything in his power to
full-fill them. He goes to seek their advice and becomes obsessed with what they will say.
Their influence grows upon Macbeth just as their influence in the play grows. This is
Macbeth's greatest weakness and the main reason for his downfall. The witches'
prophecies are only predictions it is he who makes them happen. He turns from being good to
evil.
"All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis."
"All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor."
"All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter."
(Macbeth, Act I Scene 3 lines 46-48)
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The three witches have a strange appearance; they create fascination amongst the audience.
They appear sexless as Banquo describes them as having features of women but also
masculine features such as beards. The witches provide a sinister atmosphere by the way they
speak in rhyme and chants. They use short easy lyrics in order for us to recall. Most people
who do not even know the play can recall the Hubble-Bubble chant.
"Upon her skinny lips; you should be women and yet your beards forbid
me to interpret that you are so."(Macbeth, Act I Scene 3 lines 43-45)
As the play progresses we start to believe that the witches are responsible for all of the
happenings in the play of Macbeth, for example creating the dagger that Macbeth sees before
him and the dying Banquo at the feasting table. This creates excitement for the audience.
"Thou canst not say I did it; never shake thy gory locks at me!
"(Macbeth, Act 3 Scene 4 lines 50-51)
The witches brought many people to come and see Macbeth especially the King with him
having a fascination on the subject of witches. It was the popular theme of the day; they had a
dramatic interest and turned the play into a mystery because no one could have expected what
the witches would do. Macbeth retains his free will throughout the play, it is his downfall
that he decides to follow what the witches tell him, and if he had lost his free will you could
not call him a tragic figure.
Shakespeare uses dramatic methods to display the witches in Act 1 scene 3. We can see the
evil in the witches by the way they torment a sailor just because his wife didn't give into their
demands for chestnuts. They could have tortured his wife physically but they decided to do it
mentally. The witches did this by torturing her husband, the sailor, by denying him sleep.
They appear to get great pleasure from being malicious in the way that they torture the
sailor. As well as denying him sleep they produced a great storm, it was so great because it
would last, "Sennights nine times nine," and "drain him dry as hay." The spell and the way
they chant it adds to the mystery surrounding the witches, like the way the use the pilot's
thumb to help in the sailor's torment. The witches dance in a circle to the beat of Macbeth's
drum in movements of three, "Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine, And thrice again, to make
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up nine." The number three seems to have a magical significance in Macbeth concerning the
witches. On Banquo's first encounter with the witches, he describes their physical appearance
as,
"So withered and so wild in their attire,
That look not like th'inhabitants o'th'earth,
And yet are on't."
We begin to get a clear picture of the witches' appearance, Banquo
then says,
"You should be women
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so."
Elizabethans believed that women could lure men into committing sin and they became
known as temptresses. We can see that Banquo is nearly amused by the witches and
queries their prophecies calmly, unlike Macbeth who reacts very differently to the witches
and what they have to say. Macbeth seems to be dumbfounded by them, "rapt withal." The
prophecies are in rhyming couplets. They do not tell Macbeth or Banquo how to act; instead
they stay neutral and let them act on their own accords.
The audiences are more aware of the witches than Macbeth and Banquo, we know that
Macbeth became Thane of Cawdor by his own actions. The witches are successful in
challenging Macbeth's morals. Perhaps Macbeth was all along planning to murder Duncan to
become King and all the witches have done is brought this thought to the fore.
Macbeth tries to discard the first thoughts of murder playing on his mind, announcing that he
will leave everything to chance, "If chance will have me King, why, chance my crown me
without my stir."
At the end of the scene Macbeth still has some unanswered questions
and in his mind is trying to plan out his future. Macbeth takes sanctuary in a lie, pretending
that his, "dull brain was wrought with things forgotten," when in fact, he has been
reflecting on the future and not in the past. This minute lie may seem harmless but it is the
first sign of evil developing in Macbeth, the fact that he feels that he must cover these
thoughts up shows us that he knew what he is thinking is wrong.
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The witches in Macbeth rise questions in people's minds, are they real? How do they
live upon the heath? These create suspense amongst the audience they keep them guessing.
Throughout the play the witches appear to posses people. Lady Macbeth is one of them. She
calls upon evil spirits for assistance for her to be able to go through with the evil deed of
killing King Duncan.
"Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here and
fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty.” (Macbeth, Act I
Scene 5 lines 38-52)
Lady Macbeth is excited about the evil that she has allowed to posses her but becomes
consumed by it and the doctor has to call for the divine to come and help her. The divine is
the Christian goodness because the doctor believes she has been consumed by the devil.
Macbeth is about the battle about good and evil and this is one of the battles, Lady Macbeth
looses and commits suicide, she is condemned to Hell because the Christian Church considers
suicide a sin.
"More needs she the divine then the physician." (Macbeth, Act 5 Scene I line 64)
Later on in the play we start to consider Lady Macbeth as a possible fourth witch by the way
she calls on evil, "Come ye spirits that tend on mortal thoughts," would immediately make
Elizabethan audiences distinguish her as a witch. She wants to become a witch and remove
all the goodness within her, to persuade her husband to murder Duncan.
I think that Macbeth is under the witches' control when later on in the play, he goes to
them instead of them coming to him, "I will tomorrow to the weird sisters, more shall they
speak. For I am bent to know by the worst means the worst." The three apparitions forewarn
Macbeth's fate: a head foretelling his decapitation of Macduff, a bloody child, representing
Macduff being "untimely cut from the womb", and a child crowned with a tree in his hand,
representing Malcolm coming to Duns inane carrying a bough. These apparitions suck
Macbeth deeper into the witches' confidence Macbeth takes the witches' advice too seriously;
he does not realize that they are only showing him his fate. He takes what he wants from the
apparitions and nothing else, which is an unwise mistake that makes death unavoidable.
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Macbeth even thanks the witches, "Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution thanks."
Macbeth is continually giving into evil, and letting the witches entice him into more and more
danger.
In Macbeth, I think that the witches play a big role in Macbeth's eventual downfall. Although
they do not directly instruct him on what to do, in my opinion I think that they persuade
Macbeth to kill Duncan in order to be King. In every Shakespearean tragedy, the hero always
has a tragic flaw, which leads to his or her own downfall. Macbeth's tragic flaw in my opinion
is that he is too weak, easily led and does not think of the consequences of his actions.
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Works Cited
Primary Source: Shakespeare William: Macbeth.
"Hansel and Gretel," "Snow White." The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Vol 1.
Trans. J. Zipes. New York: Bantam, 1987. 62-69; 213-222.
Keller, Bill. "Apartheid's Grisly Aftermath: 'Witch Burning'." New York Times 15 Sept. 1994.
Mayer, Philip. "Witches" (1954). Witchcraft Hysteria in Puritan New England
The Straight Dope What's the story on the curse of Macbeth?
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmacbeth.html
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