A desert place macbeth

The action of the scene is over with the naming of the man against whose soul these ministers of darkness are plotting. The dialogue of the witches is a sort of chant. It is thrown into a verse form, trochaic tetrameter , which Shakespeare rarely uses except for supernatural beings, witches, fairies, or the like. In order to bring out the rhyme the last syllable is dropped from the end of each line. In line 2 the rhythm is reversed and the stress falls on the second syllable of each foot.

In line 8 the stressed syllable in the third foot is omitted. This forces us to pause in the middle of the line and so secures additional emphasis for the closing word, "Macbeth. The couplet with which the witches take their departure is a confession of their creed. All that is good, "fair," to others is evil, "foul," to them, and vice versa.

During the reign of Elizabeth I there were numerous witch trials and persecutions and the idea of these symbols of supernatural evil fascinated and appalled the country at large. A belief in God and subsequently the ideas of heaven and hell was almost universally accepted. The Devil was believed to be an actual entity, a malign presence in the world of men. Witches were his corrupted human servants. Invariably female, they were reputed to possess fabulous supernatural powers, through their diabolical pacts with Satan.

They could place a curse upon an enemy, make predictions of future events, affect the weather, summon demonic spirits, sail across the oceans in a sieve and even fly. James I took the English throne in — years ago. Witches were believed to have a familiar, a demonic spirit in the form of a domestic animal, bird or reptile.

This familiar was a gift from the Devil, a pact believed to have been sealed by the exchange of blood. The torturing of suspects to elicit confessions was the accepted norm. A year after James took the throne in an Act of Parliament established that anyone found guilty of any form of witchcraft should be executed.

James himself was fascinated by witches and witchcraft in general. He even went so far as to publish a book, Demonology, on the subject. Perhaps having survived a assassination attempt by a group of witches, while he was still the King of Scotland, it is no surprise that he was interested in the subject.

Shakespeare clearly wanted to tap into this vein of royal and public fascination with Macbeth. For some more information on attitudes towards witchcraft in the era check out this fascinating article by Carole Levin. So, back to the scene. What do the witches say and do? What is their purpose here, at the very opening of the play? The very first thing the First Witch does is establish that this meeting is merely a precursor to a more momentous one. I provide a little background information on the nature of medieval warfare in my analysis of Act 1 Scene 2.

The battle will obviously prove to be a joyous victory for one of the competing armies. Yet for every winner in a contest there must be a loser. Shakespeare is establishing that this duality issue will be one that runs throughout the play. Generally, in a play or novel there are three ways we can learn about a character — from what they say, what they do and what others say about them. Our very first mention of Macbeth comes from the lips of a witch, a feared and hated symbol of darkness and evil.

This is foreshadowing of the most obvious sort. It forces the reader to consider what sort of man Macbeth might be, even before he is introduced to the audience. This is the dramatist shaping the attitude of his audience in a powerful way.

Expectations are being created. Firstly, it denotes that the meeting between the witches and Macbeth will take place at dusk, amidst the dying of the light. A time with ominous associations. A liminal time caught between light and dark, which links thematically to the idea of duality and conflict theme. Remember Witches were believed to have a limited ability to see into the future. She may also simply be making an educated guess. The Witches reference their demon familiars, presumably reacting to their cries and calls from off-stage.

This would send a chill down the spine of the Jacobean audience, who would have thrilled to such tales and superstitions. Their final words would have continued to play on the expectations of the audience, yet once again Shakespeare makes an image do double duty. The line establishes that: 1 The deeds they delight in would be seen as evil by normal folk in the same way that the simple goodness of normal folk would be abhorrent to them. This is again foreshadowing.

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