• The witches meet up and discuss how one of them has destroyed a man’s life because his wife did not share her chestnuts with the witch.
  • the witches are going to cause the sailor to be lost at sea, they are going to drain him of hope, energy, and life until there is nothing left, starving him, and driving him insane until he eventually dies. This emphasizes their vindictive cruelty.
  • They never outright kill him but they torture him until he dies of starvation and insanity.
  • Why are these witches messing with and torturing this sailor? What did he ever do to them?
    • The witches do not give a reason at all, in fact, they have no reason to kill him other than for their own amusement and sick fun.
  • Shakespeare’s witches are different in Macbeth because the witches only foretell Macbeth’s fate and do not control it (unlike the fates in mythology). This is important because all the fall out that happens, every decision Macbeth makes, and death that occurs is because of Macbeth’s independent decisions and actions alone. His fate is in his own hands.
  • Macbeth trusts the witches at their word and does not stop to think about the source of the information.
  • Act 1.3
  • “the instruments of darkness tell us truths, / win us with honest trifles, to betray’s / in deepest consequence”.
    • Banquo sees through the 3 witches manipulation and sees the root of the prophecy and sees the truthà sees the evil intent to cause death/ destruction.
    • Banquo sees 3 witches for what they are—> mess w/ world of mankind because loves chaos and destruction.
      • Emphasizes their own power while making man weak.
    • Banquo see 3 witches’ provoke ambition that blinds Man to the gravity of their human consequences that ultimately betrays them and cause their downfall/ tragedy

 

  • “My thought whose murder yet is but fantastical. /Shakes so my single state of man.”
    • MCB already jumps straight to murder as way to get crown. à emphasizes power hungry moves his mind
    • MCB discounts his dark thoughts of murder and regicide (murdering a king) as not real not actively unthink them.
  • His first thought right away is murder.