The Weird Sisters / Witches Flashcards
(12 cards)
What does the play opening with the witches symbolize?
Suggest they will take a significant role in macbeth,
Supernatural , invited into a mysterious world made all the more enigmatic by the fact that we arrive by the end of what they were doing.
Grabs interest of audience and the king , an important source of revenue.
A1S1..
‘Where shall we three..
meet again?’
Shows their meeting is complete, and leaves the audience with a sense of curiosity on what they were up to, and what role they will take in the play, and what to think of them.
Witchcraft in Jacobean times.
James I - writ a book about witches and had an interest in them, was responsible for burning 4000 accused in scotland. ‘daemonology’
Was a crime punishable by death
Shakespeare tapped into contemporary obsessions and ideas to make his work relevant to the audience.
After 140 years of Macbeth , how did the view on witchcraft change?
The idea of witchcraft and spell were laughable
1735 witchcraft act reduced penalty from death to one year in prison,
Shift from actual belief in witchcraft to punishing those who made a prestence of having special powers.
What form do the witches speak in.
Trochaic meter - stressed syllables followed by unstressed syllables.
e.g ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’
Other nobles in play speak in Iamic pentameter- unstressed syllables to stressed
Shows their otherworldliness and makes them stand out from the other characters, emphasise their wickedness.
The witches power.
Do they make macbeth kill duncan ?
Or was he going to do it anyway?
In act 1 scene 1 when the witches seem to know what is happening in macbeths life (‘when the battles lost and won’) and where to meet macbeth ‘upon the heath’
Do they have the power of direction, to make things happen, or the power of prophecy to predict the future?
Shakespeare use of dramatic irony-
Signifies that the witches aren’t as powerful as they might first appear to be.
When they prophecies to macbeth in act 1 scene 3, that he will be thane of cawdor, we already know that duncan as said this previously and not made this happen.
To the audience it’s obvious the witches ‘interpose in a chain of human actions rather than direct actions themselves’
Can be a rational thing as macbeth was loyal and powerful, and the thane had been a cawdor - the witches didn’t make this happen.
Act 1 Scene 3 - witches discussion reveals the limitations of their power.
E.g one of the witches was offended as a woman wouldn’t give her chestnuts, and has decided to take it out on the woman’s husband who is a sailor.
We learn they have control over the winds and uses them to distrust the ships journey, but can’t take his life.
‘Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-toast’
How do the witches appear different in act 1 scene 5 to when we first meet them?
we learn the witches are subordinate to hecate who is angry they didn’t consult her first before speaking to macbeth.
What does Hecate describe herself as in act 1 scene 5?
The mistress..
of your charms’
witches seen as powerful is less, as they’re reprimanded by their superior.
Act 4 - Witches meet macbeth again as he looks to them for comfort.
The three apparitions they give him.
They speak deceptively and in half truths.
Signposting important details for the audience.
‘
armed Head’ - how macbeths head will be cut off, however he believes the head is representative of macduff.
‘
Bloody Child’ - in reality , macduff
‘No one of woman born- macduff was born from caesarian. Macbeth fails to see deception and falls into the prophecy that he has no one to fear.
‘Child crowned, with a tree in his hand’ - Malcom, Duncan’s son, coming to macbeth’s castle carrying a branch from a tree. advice is macbeth can’t be harmed until burnam wood moods to dunsinane, - he believes it’s impossible for a forest to move - feels more secure.
Final vision - line of 8 kings descendants of banquo. despite this , he stays secure due to the earlier visions
What does they no longer appearing at the end of the play signify?
They aren’t as important as it seemed. - Macbeth didn’t need them to do his plan.
