Three Witches in Macbeth

The three witches in MacBeth by William Shakespeare play a big role in Macbeth’s downfall. Some people believe that the witches were actually using spells on him, while others just think that the witches just planted a seed in his mind that would lead to his own downfall. Macbeth is a tragedy about a man who is manipulated by witches and falls doom to his own self fulfilling prophesy, paranoia, and over confidence.

There are three separate occasions that Macbeth interprets what the witches say in his own way. They gave him a vague prophecy and he would do things to make it come true. The first is “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.” (I.III) The witches tell Macbeth that he will be king and that Banquo’s son will be king. What the witches fail to mention is HOW Macbeth becomes king. Macbeth believes this further when the King tells him that he is going to move him up and take care of him. When the king announces his son the heir to the throne Macbeth’s first thought is to kill the king so he can become king. He ends up killing the king so he could become king himself. The second time is when the witches tell him that Macduff was the only one that he should worry about. Macbeth goes to kill Macduff but since Macduff ran away, he decided to kill Macduff’s family.

The second thing that the witches did was make him paranoid. Macbeth’s wife forced him to kill the King but after that all the other things he did were his own decisions. He had three murderers kill Banquo. I believe the third was one of the witches because at one point in the scene where Banquo was killed, his son was also there but got away because a light went out. I believe the witches did this on purpose to make Macbeth even more paranoid than he already was. There was another scene where Macbeth sees Banquo’s ghost at a banquet. Macbeth starts acting crazy in front of his guests and his wife has to get the people to believe that he wasn’t feeling well. I believe that his paranoia was fogging his logical thinking. He probably felt grief deep down for what he did to Banquo but was also still paranoid about Fleance.

The final thing that the witches did was make Macbeth over confident and made him feel as though he was invincible. After Macbeth had killed Duncan his personality did a total one eighty. He didn’t listen to his wife and killed when he pleased. One of the prophets told him that anyone woman born would not touch him, so he thought he was invincible. In his final moments in a face off with Macduff, he knew he was gonna die or be taken prisoner. He still fought because he’d rather die.

Macbeth is a tragedy about a man who is manipulated by witches and falls doom to his own self fulfilling prophesy, paranoia, and over confidence. Some people believe that the witches were actually using spells on him, while others just think that the witches just planted a seed in his mind that would lead to his own downfall.