Macbeth The Supernatural Quotes Page 1

The witches' appearance in the play's opening scene certainly is dramatic but the sisters are also incredibly ambiguous. They seem to raise more questions than anything else. Who/what are they? (As readers, we're privy to the speech headings, which refer to the figures as witches but we can imagine what it would be like to witness this scene as an audience to a stage performance. The first witch refers to the crew simply as "we three" so their identity is unclear.) Where do they come from? What do they want with Macbeth? And, what do they have to do with the "battle"?

Here, the witches seem silly for conjuring a storm and casting a spell on a man whose wife refused to share some chestnuts. This pettiness seems to reflect a common problem in rural areas in the 16th and 17th centuries, where it was common for poor, old, unmarried women to be accused of witchcraft after begging for food (like chestnuts) and being turned away, especially if something bad later happened to the individuals or families that refused to help – and bad things like infertility, crop failures, illness, and unexpected deaths were always happening to folks back then.

This passage is also notable for the way it dramatizes a fear of women emasculating men. The First Witch not only whips up a storm to torment the sailor/husband, she also casts a spell to "drain" him or, cause him to be impotent/sterile. In the 16th and 17th centuries, some thought that witches could actually cause male impotence. Even King James (the monarch at the time the play was written) bought into this idea. Check out what he writes in the preface to Daemonologie (his 1603 treatise on witchcraft): "Witches can, by the power of their Master, cure or cast on diseases[…] as of weakening the nature of some men, to make them unavailable for women."

Even Banquo is uncertain about the sisters. He wonders if they are real and whether or not they're "inhabitants" of the earth. What's interesting about this passage is the way in which Banquo's confusion about the witches ultimately registers as confusion about their gender – he's not sure if they're "women" because they have "beards."