The Witches

The symbols of evil in Jacobean society

Witches at the start

Stage Directions: ‘thunder and lightning’

Witches at the start

‘Fair is foul and Foul is Fair’

First Prophesies

‘All Hail Macbeth’… ‘Thane of Glamis’ ‘Thane of Cawdor’ ‘King hereafter’

By Act 3 they say of Macbeth

‘by the pricking of my thumb, something wicked this way comes’

Second Set of prophesies in Act 4

1. ‘Armed Head…Beware Macduff’ 

2. ‘a bloody child…none of woman born shall harm Macbeth’

3. ‘crowned child with a tree in his hand…Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to High Dunsinane Hill shall come against him’

4. ‘A show of eight kings…Banquo following’

Understand the corruptive nature of man

‘Security is mortal’s chiefest enemy’