Witchcraft and Downfall: A Macbeth Analysis

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Within the story of Macbeth, the three witches play a significant role, for their actions and prophecies begun a chain of events that eventually led to the downfall of the play's main antagonist and despite their limited appearances within the play, impacted the story in more ways than one. Their manipulation of truths are the main cause for the chaos and the bloodshed within the story. However, the witches’ influence not only furthers the plot, but develops character and conflict within the story, with the most prominent characters being Macbeth, as his involvement with the witches formed the framework for the story, Lady Macbeth, who lost her sanity after that fateful night and Banquo, where the promise of kings blinded his noble and honourable …show more content…

It can be seen that this is true in many cases one such as the doubts and fears that plague is mind after he attains the crown. “ Upon my head they place a fruitless crown/ And put a barren sceptre in my gripe” (3.1.77-78) confirms his uneasiness about the first set of prophecies spoken by the witches. This imagined instability prompts him to further prompts him to commit unspeakable acts terror in order to protect what he believes to be rightfully his. This is the beginning of a slew of horrible events that ultimately lead to his untimely death at the hands of Macduff. Another change in his character is the overconfidence that fills his heart during his second audience with the witches. The …show more content…

This is especially true during his soliloquy:
Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,/ As the weird women promised, and, I fear,/ Thou play'dst most foully for't: yet it was said/ It should not stand in thy posterity,/ But that myself should be the root and father/ Of many kings. If there come truth from them/ As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine/ Why, by the verities on thee made good (3.1.1-8).

During this scene, Banquo refuses to speak out against Macbeth as he begins to believe the prophecies. His silence sealed the fate of Scotland to one of chaos and terror as his word may have dethroned Macbeth at that very moment. One can see that the prophecies were what stopped Banquo from speaking out against Macbeth as he now believes that all the events that transpire before him are a part of fate. It is now his hope that his sons become kings hereafter as the witches foretold. However, it can also be said that the prophecies were the cause of his murder as proven by this

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