The Second Witch In Macbeth Essay

The second witch in the play Macbeth isn’t a very significant character in Act 4 scene 1. She blends in with the other witches because they all want the same things. They all want to mess with Macbeth’s life and tell him prophecies just for their own enjoyment. In this scene, the three witches are making an evil charm and conjuring up the prophecies to tell Macbeth his future. They all chant and call for the apparitions to appear, “Come, high or low; Thyself and office deftly show!” The witches also want to change Macbeth’s future by telling him prophecies that will provoke him to think he is invincible. The second apparition tells him “The power of a man, for none of woman born” which means that no man that was born naturally of a woman could hurt him. This makes him believe that Macduff couldn’t hurt him. His overconfidence, however, is shown in later scenes. None of the witches have to overcome any obstacles in this scene. Although the second witch isn’t a dynamic or a round character herself, she contributes to the witches evilness and their desire to ruin Macbeth’s life.

All of the witches use elaborate language like “Eye of a newt and toe of a frog, Wool of a bat and tongue of a dog.” They all say these spells and rhymes to emphasize the creepy, evil tone of this scene. Lines like “For a charm of powerful trouble, like a hell-broth boil and bubble” let the reader know that the witches are evil and Macbeth’s prophecies might be bad for him. The witches don’t talk like the rest of the characters. The other characters ask questions and talk with passion and depth. The witches, however, only talk in an evil, mysterious tone and sometimes say abrupt one-word fragments with a stern tone. For example, the second witch says “Demand!” and “Show!” The second witch uses rhyming and a mysterious yet stern tone to make the scene creepy and