The Role of the Witches in Act 1

The play Macbeth starts with the meeting of the three witches in a "deserted heath". One reason why Shakespeare starts the play in this way is that in his time people believed in the existence of witches and blamed them for all unnatural events that happened. The people believed that witches had contact with the devil and animals, that they could fly on broomsticks, cast spells by chanting and making potions and that they had the ability to fortell the future.

Shakespeare starts the play with the three witches who meet in a deserted place in Scotland on a stormy night. He starts like this because he wants to scare the audience.The whole atmosphere becomes sinister and strange and gives us an impression of evil things to come at a later stage.The witches conversation is filled with paradoxes; they say that they will meet Macbeth "when the battle's lost and won," when "fair is foul and foul is fair.
In this scene we learn that the three witches......

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Title: Maccbeth The Role Of The Witches In Act 1
Approximate Word Count: 748
Approximate Pages: 3 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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