A Deed Without A Name: The Significance Of Witches In Macbeth

Part I of Essay
Shakespeare uses the witches in Macbeth for two main reasons. Firstly, to show how desire, ambition and greed are often more powerful than reason, and secondly for dramatic effect which comes from the confusion surrounding their identity and the vagueness of their propheci ....

Part II of Essay
.... in Macbeth when they meet him after the battle. They promise him that he will be Thane of Cawdor and, later, King of Scotland. Once he becomes Thane of Cawdor, he thinks only of soon becoming the King. Even shortly after becoming Thane, his thoughts are already on murder. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” (Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 143-144). Macbeth says this because he does not wish to take any action. If it is his destiny to be King, then fate will determine that regardless of his actions. However, Macbe ....