Act 1 Scene 1 of Macbeth Description
MACBETH
Act
1
Sc.
I/The
Witches/Character
study of Macbeth
• Charles lamb while speaking about the witches describes them as ‘…creatures to whom man or woman plotting some dire mischief might resort for occasional consultation.
….From
the moment that their eyes first met
Macbeth
he is spellbound.
That
meeting sways his destiny. He can never break the fascination. These witches can hurt the body (refer to the
Sailors
of the “tiger’ in Act
1
Sc iii)….they are foul Anomalies, of whom we know not whence they are sprung nor whether they have beginning or ending.
As
they are without human passions, so they seem to be without human relations.
They
come with thunder and lightening, and vanish into airy music. …the
Weird
Sisters are serious things. Their presence cannot co-exist with mirth….” • Although,
H.
Granville-Barker, in his
‘Prefaces
to
Shakespeare’
believed the opening scene to be a
‘…poor
scene and a pointless scene.”,
Coleridge
believed that, ‘the true reason for the first appearance of the
Weird
Sisters,
[is
to strike] the keynote ..of the whole play…’ while comparing it with Hamlet,
Coleridge
reiterates that while in hamlet there is a ‘gradual ascent from the simplest forms of conversation to the language of impassioned intellect… in the Macbeth the invocation is made at once to the imagination, and the emotions connected therewith.’
• L.C.
Knights
in his seminal work of criticism ‘Explorations’ declares that each theme of the play “is stated in the first act. The first scene, every word of which will bear the closest scrutiny, strikes one dominant note.” • Shakespeare's dramatic genius is especially to be noted in the art with which he manages his beginnings.
The
first scene of
Act
1
Sc.
I/The
Witches/Character
study of Macbeth
• Charles lamb while speaking about the witches describes them as ‘…creatures to whom man or woman plotting some dire mischief might resort for occasional consultation.
….From
the moment that their eyes first met
Macbeth
he is spellbound.
That
meeting sways his destiny. He can never break the fascination. These witches can hurt the body (refer to the
Sailors
of the “tiger’ in Act
1
Sc iii)….they are foul Anomalies, of whom we know not whence they are sprung nor whether they have beginning or ending.
As
they are without human passions, so they seem to be without human relations.
They
come with thunder and lightening, and vanish into airy music. …the
Weird
Sisters are serious things. Their presence cannot co-exist with mirth….” • Although,
H.
Granville-Barker, in his
‘Prefaces
to
Shakespeare’
believed the opening scene to be a
‘…poor
scene and a pointless scene.”,
Coleridge
believed that, ‘the true reason for the first appearance of the
Weird
Sisters,
[is
to strike] the keynote ..of the whole play…’ while comparing it with Hamlet,
Coleridge
reiterates that while in hamlet there is a ‘gradual ascent from the simplest forms of conversation to the language of impassioned intellect… in the Macbeth the invocation is made at once to the imagination, and the emotions connected therewith.’
• L.C.
Knights
in his seminal work of criticism ‘Explorations’ declares that each theme of the play “is stated in the first act. The first scene, every word of which will bear the closest scrutiny, strikes one dominant note.” • Shakespeare's dramatic genius is especially to be noted in the art with which he manages his beginnings.
The
first scene of