english exam – macbeth passage analysis

witches, scene before no scene before they open the play
witches scene after talk about the sailors wife// after chanting is macbeth demands to speak to their master and is confronted by three apparitions which basically warn him of macduff and says that he cannot be harmed by anyone born from a woman
what are the witches concerns, problems, motivations etc.? the witches problems stem right to how they are outcasts in the community. they are treated horribly and are not thought as real human people. not of this earth. it is even worse as they are women. they are low status, speaking in trochaic metre ( meaning it is stessed and then unstressed)
witches problems – missing scene FIRST WITCHA sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap and munched away at them. “Give me one,” I said. “Get away from me, witch!” the fat woman cried. Her husband has sailed off to Aleppo as master of a ship called the Tiger. I’ll sail there in a kitchen strainer, turn myself into a tailless rat, and do things to him—
sailors wife – witches analysis if you take a more sympathetic view of the witches you can really see the vulnerability of the witches. the first witch is like a homeless person – begging for food.but as the witch is seen as weird; an outcast, she is declined and told to get away from her. they are treated like they are not human.the witches want to take revenge on the selfish woman for not having kindness to help.a motive of the witches is to wreak havoc to make up for the pain of being outcasts that are women and also for being treated so horrendusly by the community. vengeful not evilangry at the world
“thunder, lightning or rain” dark aspect
upon the heath upon the barren patch of land
anon right away
Fair is foul and foul is fair (Act I) Witches * an ambiguous statement; could have double meaning* also reflects the overall theme–hard to distinguish between fair (good) and foul (evil)what is considered good is bad and what is bad is considered good
Double, double toil and trouble;Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. trochaic metre (what they speak in) makes it seem unrealchant is creepy- unnatural
trochaic meter a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable
imagery from the chanting in section two everything they talk about makes them seem gory, disgusting and unnatural + malevolent and evil
malevolent having or showing a wish to do evil to others
“how now, you secret, black and midnight hags” – macbeth connects to the way the sailors wife treated themmacbeth responds to the witches very negatively even though he knows them, calling them ‘hags’has no respect for them and has no problem insulting them and adressing them as a lower status to him
tone that witches create dark and disturbing tone
language used by the witches helps them seen otherworldly and mysteriousmany of their lines are in rhyming couplets. adds to that supernatural tonespeak in trochaic metre with rhyming couplets
they talk in threes three is seen as an unlucky numberthree is also known as the number of (summin) in the holy trinity. seems like a joke for the witches as they are seen to be more like an unholy trinity

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