Role Of Nervous Witches In Macbeth

William Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth is one of his bloodiest and most ambition driven plays. In Macbeth there are several important characters beginning with three mischievous witches who continuous cause trouble for the main character, Macbeth. The witches play an important role in the play as they predict Macbeth’s fate through prophecies and apparitions. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth encounters the witches and they tell him what they see is awaiting him in the future. “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis! / thane of Cawdor! / that shalt be king hereafter (1:3:49-51)!” Here they are telling Macbeth who is already thane of Glamis, that his fate is to become the thane of Cawdor. After becoming thane of Cawdor, he shall become the King.
The second and final time Macbeth meets with the mischievous witches they show him three apparitions who tell him what will cause his downfall. “Beware Macduff. Beware the thane of Fife / The power of man, for none of woman born shall harm Macbeth / shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill shall come against him (4:1:73-98).” The apparitions of first an armed head tells him to beware of Macduff second, a bloody child states that no man who is born of women can harm him, and finally a child crowned, with a tree in his hand states he will not be defeated until trees move. With this information Macbeth feels confident he will not be killed. At the end of the play, the prophecies and apparitions presented by the witches became Macbeth’s reality. “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus (3:1:50-51).” Macbeth states that to be king is nothing if he is not safe as