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Macbeth: The Weird Sisters

Macbeth: The Weird Sisters


In Elizabethan times, witches were a natural part of life. Macbeth
witnessed this, as seen in the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. The evil
forces that the weird sisters, who were witches, possessed, put Macbeth's mind
in another direction. This direction was the beginning of his moral downfall
and the destruction of his destiny. The weird sisters warned Macbeth of this in
the three apparitions but he continued living his life without realizing that
they were speaking of him.
Without the weird sisters, Macbeth would have lived a very different
life. It is unknown whether it would have been better or worse. The weird
sisters affected Macbeth in the worst way. They tempted him by addressing him
as Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis and future king, without ordering him to do
anything to obtain these positions.

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.
(Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 48-50) With this
information Macbeth was provided with incentive to kill Duncan the King of
Scotland. He was tempted into believing that if the King was murdered, he was
to become what the witches predicted. While the witches never said this,
Macbeth assumed that that was what they meant and the subsequent murder of
Duncan was carried out by Macbeth himself, but, he also ordered special
murderers to kill Banquo, Lady Macduff and her children. The murder and
bloodshed had absolutely nothing to do with the witches. Macbeth acted totally
out of his own will and beliefs.
Although Macbeth murdered Duncan, it was not planned and thought out.
When Macbeth heard the prediction given to him by the three witches, he wrote a
letter to his wife (Lady Macbeth). On reading this letter, Lady Macbeth
believed that if Macbeth murdered Duncan he would take his place at the Throne.
Lady Macbeth did not know that...