Witch Scenes In Macbeth Essay

The renowned play writer William Shakespeare lived in the late 16th and early 17th century. Shakespeare wrote a credited 37 plays and 154 sonnets during his life time. Shakespeare wrote plays that incorporated comedies, history, character tragedies and romance. One of Shakespeare’s prominent tragic plays Macbeth has much speculation over four witch scenes and two songs that are thought to be plagiarized. The four witch scenes in Macbeth should be legal and ethically performed within the play.
First, all four witch scenes are vital to form the tragic character flaw of the play and the role of the witches preform the inciting event that leads to the character Macbeth's destruction. The three weird sisters or three fates manipulate Macbeth onto his path of downhill destruction by prophesying “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.50). After being told their omens, Macbeth later shortly realizes that their second omen of him becoming thane of Cawdor has come

true and it starts his lust for power. If the witches where to be removed form Shakespeare’s play the purpose and many motifs of the play would crumble. The play would crumble because the removal of the four witch scenes would cause the removal of Macbeth's and Lady Macbeth's soliloquies from the play. Therefore, the witches are important to the play because without them the play would just be about a man’s morals being destroyed and him becoming a murderous tyrant.
Second, the witch scenes must be original to the play because William Shakespeare used factual evidence from Holinshed's chronicles. In Holinshed's chronicles, Holinshed recorded the real-life Macbeth to having meeting three witches in his life time. In act one Shakespeare made his character Lady Macbeth preform a soliloquy where she asks spirits to let her feminism to become unsexed and evil to gain power over her. “come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe topful of direst cruelty!” (1.5.35). Shakespeare used Holinshed's history records to reference his version of Lady Macbeth’s character to the character of the real-life Lady Macbeth. “but especially his wife lay sore upon him to attempt the thing, as she that was very ambitious, burning in unquenchable desire to bear the name of a queen.” (437 Holinshed) Since, Shakespeare used details from Holinshed's chronicles to make his play version of Lady Macbeth as close to the original as possible. So, therefor why wouldn’t the witch scene also be original to history.
Third, there is no defendant way to prove that if the witch scenes and songs are or are not original to the play.

During the time, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth there was no such rules about copy right infringement laws. According to Damnable Practices by Sarah William's “Ballads were sold outside London's theaters”. It is known that writers would often trade and use scenes from other writers plays and works. Macbeth and The Witch by Thomas Middleton is an example of possible plagiarism among the witch scenes and the two-incorporated song's “come away”, “cauldron bubble”. Many scholars can’t decide if Middleton copy righted from Shakespeare or Shakespeare later adopted the scenes and songs from Middleton’s play. Overall, there is no definitive proof that if or if not the witch scenes and songs are original but it is well evident that the witch scenes must be incorporated into the play for

successful.
Fourth, while some scholars would declare that the play Macbeth is not an all original work of William Shakespeare. The few literary scholars who believe and judge that all four or some of the witch scenes/songs where not originally incorporated into Shakespeare's introductory script of Macbeth. The scholars' theory on Macbeth not being an original work cannot be explicitly proved and debated among. The more feasible assumption is that all the witch scenes are original to the script of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. The scenes must be original to the play because without the witches’ involvement multiple important character scripts would have to be removed. The effect of multiple scripts becoming unessential will make the play lose its aim and expectations as being a work of William Shakespeare.
To conclude, the four witch scenes and the two songs “come away”, “Black Spirits” in Shakespeare’s Macbeth should be protected and honorably appointed to the play. The play should be performed in the way the play subsisted throughout the centuries. On the other hand, an alternative rewrite or removal of the plays association with the character Hecate is advised. The removal of Hecate would simplify the plays need of another actor or just have one of the three weird sisters preform the role. If scholars were to finally warrant that Shakespeare’s Macbeth is not an original work, the decision would result in the ruin of many famous literary works.