Character Analysis – the Three Witches

Character Analysis – The Three Witches

First Witch - Zalikha

The three witches appear at the very beginning of the play which we have no idea from who they are, what are they and where do they come from. Once we first encounter these three witches, we will be haunted by mysterious questions that will intrigue our curiosity to the storyline of the play, on what will happen to the other characters. The three witches are always together and at first they are trying to approach Macbeth by telling him prophecy (Crowther, 2005). The first, second and third witch complement each other in terms of their roles to manipulate Macbeth. In this play, these witches are also called the weird sisters. In fact, the word witches only comes out once but they are called weird more often. This relates to the mythology of that period of time.

Second Witch – Ahasvini

The first characters we see in Macbeth are the three witches, who are to have a profound influence over events in the play. The three witches have supernatural powers in which they use to feed the easy manipulated Macbeth with ambition. The three witches also give Macbeth a sense of security more than urging or tricking him to do terrible things and was not worried by the consequences (Tolman, 1986). Nevertheless, the three witches merely let Macbeth what is to come and it is Macbeth’s decision to make it happen or not. The weird sisters bring this story to life by creating a conflict in the play. They do not trick Macbeth into killing King Duncan nor do they urge him to; they just let him know and it goes on from there.

Third Witch – Siti Zainab

The Macbeth supernatural witches are all significant to the plot of Macbeth because they influenced Macbeth’s ‘call to action’. The five key predictions by the “Three Weird Sisters” drive Macbeth’s desire for authority and enable Lady Macbeth to chase her own ambitions. The witches’ beards created confusion in Banquo’s mind because they had the appearance of women. Besides, the three witches are always accompanied by thunder and lightning which appears just as mysterious and gloomy as they are (Jamieson, 2011). The peculiar potions and the way the witches speak in rhyming verses makes them seem slightly ludicrous. In a nut shell, they exemplify an unreasoning and instinctive evil that led to the downfall of Macbeth’s tyranny.

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