The Power of the Witches in Shakespeares Macbeth Essay -- Macbeth e

The Power of the Witches in Shakespeares Macbeth The tragedy of Macbeth comes nearly beca determination of a single event in his life. If that one moment, the meeting with the witches on the heath, had not happened then Macbeth would no doubt have gone on to be a loyal and respected subject of queen regnant Duncan and, later, King Malcolm. However, the meeting did happen and the advocatorful force of ambition was unleashed within Macbeth and madam Macbeth. It is the combination of these two factors, the meeting with the witches and Macbeths own inner demons, that lead to tragedy, and rag the play terrifying in the Aristotelian sense. The three witches are certainly responsible for(p) for initiating the events that lead to Macbeths tragedy. Their greeting to him alone 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 feed straight into his appetency for advancement. At this poin t in the play he is the newly prescribed thane of Glamis but assumes that the thane of Cawdor still lives. When news arrives that he is to be the new thane of Cawdor, Macbeth sees the heartbeat greeting as a prediction and cannot help but applaud whether the third greeting will also prove accurate. Banquo says that the forces of darkness use the truth to win us to harm but Macbeth is unsure. This supernatural soliciting cannot be good, Cannot be ill. For the audience there is even more to think about. They turn in from the conversation about the sailor whose wife had offended one of them that the witches power is circumscribed. They can torment him but not change his fate. Though his shinny cannot be lost Yet it shall ... ...with witches, partly to flatter the witch-hating James I and partly to introduce an exciting flavour of the supernatural into the play. But, exciting as the scenes with the witches and Hecate are, they are not at the heart of the tragedy. The witches powers are limited, Lady Macbeth is only a helper it is Macbeths own weaknesses that bring him down. Works Cited and Consulted Greenblatt, Stephen. Introduction to Macbeth. The Norton Shakespeare. impudently York Norton, 1997. 2555-63. Hawkins, Michael. The Witches and Macbeth. Focus on Macbeth. Ed. John Russell Brown. London Routledge, 1982. 155-88. Kermode, Frank. Introduction to Macbeth. The Riverside Shakespeare. capital of Massachusetts Houghton, 1974. 1307-11. Shakespeare, William. Tragedy of Macbeth . Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Warstine. New York Washington Press, 1992.