Preview

The Influence Of Witches In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
585 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Influence Of Witches In Macbeth By William Shakespeare
Many can say that the witches had the biggest influence and power over others. In the story of Macbeth, a story written Shakespeare, is about a man who had been prophesied that he would be king by Witches, but soon things would change for Macbeth when his wife figured out what was going to happen. Lady Macbeth throughout the play showed that she had most power and influenced others action so they would do what she wanted.
Lady Macbeth has always manipulated and convince others to do things they didn’t like or want to do.
Lady Macbeth told Macbeth “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail (I vii 229). In other words, Lady Macbeth had told Macbeth that he was no man because he doubted on everything and that showed Macbeth he had to do what was on his Wife’s mind. Macbeth had been manipulated by Lady Macbeth after she called him a coward, so when Macbeth sees his wife again he tells her “There’s one did laugh in ‘s sleep, and one cried “Murder!” (ll ii 234). Macbeth had been convinced by his wife to kill the King even though he didn’t really want to, but Lady Macbeth had convinced
…show more content…
The witches told Macbeth he would be thane " All Hail, Macbeth! That shall be king thereafter! ( 1 i 219). In other words, the witches would tell Macbeth that he would be king but other would try to stand in his way so they encourage Macbeth to do whatever it took so people wouldn’t take his place. Nevertheless, the witches only talked to Macbeth in the being and told them what he should do, but Lady Macbeth was the one that convinced Macbeth to take out some people that might take his place. Lady Macbeth told Macbeth “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place and we’ll not fail (I vii 229). Lady Macbeth challenge Macbeth when he didn’t’ want to do something making him do them like when It came down to killing king

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Although the witches put the idea of power in Macbeth’s mind, his wife, Lady Macbeth, acts as a much-needed cheerleader in convincing Macbeth to go through with their diabolical plan. Lady Macbeth taunts Macbeth continuously after he confesses his fear that the plan may not yield the results they crave, but “screw [Macbeth’s] courage to the sticking-place, and [they’ll] not fail” (1.7.60-61). The absence of Lady Macbeth’s vindictive dialogue would have kept Macbeth in an internal battle. Lady Macbeth refuses to let her husband abandon the plan, even though he attempts to do so. She makes sure that the evil inside Macbeth triumphs over whatever good intent lived inside him before the murder of Duncan.…

    • 523 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Act 1 Scene 3, the witches make their first predictions. The first is that Macbeth will be King of Cawdor and Thane of Glamis. The second is that Banquo’s sons will also be kings. Macbeth’s is forced to question the prophecies and says to the witches, “By Sinel’s death I know I am thane of Glamis. But how of Cawdor? The thane of Cawdor lives, A prosperous gentleman, and to be king, stands not within the prospect of belief,” (1.3.71-74). Due to his inevitable inheritance of the title Thane of Glamis, Macbeth is convinced that the witches are, in fact, of a supernatural nature. Despite his lingering doubts, these predictions were enough to convince Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to pursue their ambitions and kill Duncan. This shows the witches first influence in that, even though Macbeth questions their credibility, he allows them to have substantial control in his…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Three of the minor rolls in Macbeth cause the most chaos with the littlest effort. They are the witches. They use their power of suggestion to ruin all that they can. By simply suggesting things to Macbeth, they turn this proud and loyal man into a cold blooded killer. Some may say that Macbeth was unwillingly forced into his situation, but this is not true, he could have simply ignored the words of the weird sisters. His best friend, Banquo, was with him when the witches told their prophesies, but Banquo stayed true to himself and his King. Even after things began to fall apart around him, Macbeth voluntarily sought out the witches to learn more.…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Like snakes, the witches of Macbeth poison Macbeth's mind and spread illness upon him. The tragic events in Macbeth are not primarily Macbeth's or Lady Macbeth's fault but rather the responsibility of the witches. They infect Macbeth with wickedness, send evil spirits to Lady Macbeth, and manipulate Macbeth with ambiguous prophecies. Shunned by society and living in solitude, these three weird sisters hide in the background using Macbeth as their puppet. Unbeknownst to all, Macbeth was not the root cause of the tragic events and time will never be free as long as these witches have the ability to influence whomever they choose. Perhaps that is the reason instability continues in the throne for the years that follow.…

    • 118 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lady Macbeth claims that she can "look like the innocent flower/But be the serpent under 't" (1,5,64-65). She imagines that she has the capability to be remorseless and determined enough to do anything. Yet, she calls upon supernatural forces to use to her advantage. She does not ask for the help of the ‘dark side' but demands it as though she could undermine the power of unearthly evil forces. She demands: "Come, you spirits/that tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here…stop up the access and passage to remorse…you murdering ministers…come, thick night, / And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell…nor the…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth shares information as important as becoming king with his wife, which one can assume he most likely would not have done if he believed the Weїrd Sisters to be telling lies. Even though Macbeth accepts what the witches have told him as truth, he still struggles with his free will and means of fulfilling the prophecy. When speaking with Lady Macbeth, he rejects her plan to kill King Duncan, the reigning King, and tells her that they will, “proceed no further in this business”(1.7.34). Macbeth begins this scene by having new information about his future proposed to him, and questioning how, and if, it is to come to be. By the end of the scene, he has accepted the inevitable outcome, yet still holds on to the means by which it is to happen.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    macbeth: influence

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth; Many people throughout the play attempt to manipulate others in order to fit their own needs and desires. prime example of this is with Lady Macbeth. She uses her influence with her husband to convince to murder King Duncan. A second, and major, example of manipulation in Macbeth is with the three witches. They give the prophecy to Macbeth, knowing that he and his wife will plan to murder King Duncan in order to fulfill it. The play encounters influence and manipulation from Lady Macbeth and the three weird sisters. Do to those characters questions begin to stir up. Such as who was the cause for everything Macbeth did? Would there be a play without neither of the characters? In opinion there would not be a play without neither of Lady Macbeth or the three witches. Thus, stating that Macbeth would have never became a Tyrant.…

    • 1157 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Women Paper

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Lady Macbeth is one of the most influential women in Macbeth. When we first see her, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she is stronger, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. She seems fully aware of this and knows that she will have to push Macbeth into committing murder. When Lady Macbeth says, “that tends on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”. She means that she wishes she was not a woman so that she could do it herself. Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband overriding all his protests. For example when he hesitates to murder King Duncan, she constantly questions his manhood until he feels he must commit murder to prove himself. Lady Macbeth’s strength of will continues through the murder of the king like when, she talks her husband’s nerves down immediately after he did crime.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She had single handedly changed Macbeth’s mind when he had decided he was going to let fate take its course and solely let everything play out however it was going to. He was not entirely desperate to become king and was content with being the Thane of Glamis and the Thane of Cawdor, therefore he was not exactly intent on murdering the king to claim the throne for his own. Though, almost too easily, Lady Macbeth had convinced him that to become king, he had to murder the king and frame someone else-- it was their only course of action. Of course, she was more power hungry than the once humble Macbeth had been, so she had done the framing and most of the schmoozing. In fact, the only thing that even stopped her from murdering the king in the first place was that he looked similar to her father while he had…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Masculinity In Macbeth

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Lady Macbeth, dictates and influences Macbeth until she fulfills her selfish desires. Her actions, cause the play to give unexpected turns, As…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the beginning Lady Macbeth is viewed as very controlling, strong, and certain. “First, she has very little regard for her husband's humanity and actually derides him for being "too full o'th' milk of human kindness” (Thompson 1). This shows how cold Lady Macbeth is, as milk is the food of new born children, she is implying Macbeth is too much like a kind child to murder anyone. Once Macbeth has the courage to tell her he does not want to continue with the murder she rallies, calling him a ‘coward’, saying that if he could murder Duncan ‘he were a man’. This to Macbeth, a proud and mighty warrior is a deep insult, and he soon is convinced that he will carry out the murder.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Lady Macbeth instigating masculine qualities within Macbeth to kill Duncan results in Macbeth’s tyrant like nature. When Macbeth is no longer willing to follow through the plan of murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth changes his opinion by convincing him of being a man, she states, “What beast was’t then That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.” (I, VII, 52-56). Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth by defining characteristics of a man which lead him to perform riskful tasks that otherwise he would not have done. Likewise, Lady Macbeth truly manipulating Macbeth can easily be recognized when she receives the letter and describes Macbeth, “It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness” (I, V, 16). Lady Macbeth knows that Macbeth is too innocent to kill Duncan, this is why she is determined to build up a destructive type of courage in Macbeth; otherwise, Macbeth would have remained the same and most likely would not have considered killing the king. Moreover, Lady Macbeth constantly assures Macbeth to go further towards his crimes when he is in a stage of doubtfulness. When Macbeth is insecure about their plan to kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth says, “We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking place, And we’ll not fail.” (I, VII, 66-68). This is a straightforward response of Lady Macbeth possessing courage of not only pushing herself forwards, but also Macbeth to a crime that neither have committed before. One can also observe Lady Macbeth’s assurance on Macbeth when he hallucinates Banquo’s ghost and is very confused as to why no one else sees it. Lady Macbeth simply says it is his personal hallucination, “This is the very painting of…

    • 1961 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The greatest example of this is when he convinces the murderers to kill Banquo by questioning their manliness, just as his wife did to him. Macbeth says, “Do you find/Your patience so predominant in your nature/That you can let this go? Are you so gospell’d/To pray for this good man and for his issue,/Whose heavy hand hath bow’d you to the grave/And beggar’d yours for ever?” (Act III, scene i, lines 92-97). After he says this to the murderers, they each ensure him that they are in fact men, and therefore they will do what he asks and kill both Banquo and his son Fleance. Macbeth has obviously learned this technique from when his wife used the trick on him. For this reason, it is easy to say that Lady Macbeth is responsible for her husband’s utterly horrific…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth was convinced that all the prophecies the three weird sisters have spoken of will definatly come true, “ All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!” said the first witch, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!” the second witch replied, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” (Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene 3). It appears that Macbeth was set on making everything happen there was no stopping him. Lady Macbeth allied with her husband in order to gain power and rule all the lands. In the process of getting power Macbeth started to become scared of all the possible consequences, like getting murdered. Furthermore, Lady Macbeth grew furious at her husband and questioned his manhood as well as his love for her , “Art thou afeard To be the same in thine own act and valor As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that Which thou esteem’st the ornament of life And live a coward in the thine own esteem, Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’ Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage? ” (Shakespeare, Act 1, Scene…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Macbeth lets the witches’ prediction, that he “...shalt be king hereafter” (Shakespeare I.iii.53), influence the decisions he makes. Macbeth blindly listens to the witches’ prophecy without any proof, so he “... is not only a tyrant, but also his unselfconscious superstition causes him to be an incompetent one” (McGrail 32). Macbeth chooses to believe in the witches rather than dismissing their words like Banquo does. Therefore, it is this choice that leads him to his doomed fate. To continue, although Macbeth believes in the prophecies this does not mean he has to listen to them or even act on them. However, “The complete self-confidence inspired in him by the witches causes him to act in contempt of popular opinion” (McGrail 32). In particular, the witches’ predictions have some influence on Macbeth’s thoughts and plans, but they do not suggest him to murder the king. The witches also do not suggest him to order the murderers to kill Banquo, Fleance, and Macduff’s family. He makes this decision without being manipulated or influenced to do so at all. So, Macbeth allows his choice to believe in the witches influence the decisions and actions he makes. Therefore, it is his choice to act accordingly to the witches’ prophecies that lead him to his doomed…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays