Mabillard, Amanda. Introduction to the Characters in Macbeth. Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. Web. 13 Jun. 2016 Macbeth is one of Shakespeare's most famous villains, compared to the likes of which ready to murder innocent women and children, or to usurp a throne for his own greed. However despite these comparisons, Macbeth himself is not entirely evil. He is constantly aware of his own descent into darkness, his diminishing shreds of conscience trying desperately to convert him from his ways only for his wife to convince and prod him on in his ambitious and bloody quest for the throne. Lady Macbeth on the other hand, is a vile creature with an effective disguise as a human. Soon after her introduction in the play, she invokes a prayer …show more content…
Their mystical and cryptic chants and prophecies set the stage as the first to appear. Their prophecy to Macbeth was the catalyst to set the events of the rest of the play in motion, Macbeth still feeling the power of a battle won and a new title to his name found the thought of becoming king tantalizing at the witches mention of it. Between this first appearance and their last the sisters do not appear often at all though their prophecies ring out through the play. In their second appearance when they show Macbeth the three spirits, they fill their cauldron with all sorts of ghastly and foul things. Eye of newt, a dragon's scale, and tiger intestines are three of the numerous ingredients for this hellish brew. Their crypticism coming in full force at their three predictions that give Macbeth false hope. The first warns him that Macduff will come to challenge him and to beware him, and the second says that no man born of woman shall harm Macbeth. The third and final apparition says that he would only be vanquished if “Great Birnam wood” and “High Dunsiane hill [should] come against him” (4.1.87-90). The hidden meanings behind each foretelling succeed in fooling Macbeth and growing his confidence, leading to his demise and death. Throughout all of this, the witches' gain or profit from this is completely unknown, whether they did it from pure enjoyment or from a mysterious motive