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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help

Witches

I think that in the Elizabethan world view, if a ruler such as Macbeth (he is a thane at least in the beginning) is seeing witches, something is not quite right to begin with. They (the witches) even tell us so in Act 1 Scene 1 when they say,

"Fair is foul and foul is fair,
Hover through the FOG AND FILTHY AIR"

Did Macbeth kill Duncan because the witches told him that he would be king? I don't think so. I think that he killed Duncan because Lady M goaded him into it. The witches also told Macbeth that no man born of a woman would bring him down and they were right: No man did.

I rather like Lady M myself, but if this sounds like something you are investigating, you might find a little book by E.M.W. Tillyard (first name Eustace) called "The Elizabethan World Picture" helpful as well as any of the writings both of Aristotle and St. Augustine, particularly with regard to women, sin and sex.

Posted by Lillith on March 31, 1997 at 06:53:46
 In Reply to "witches' accountability for Macbeth's actions" posted by Keith Ross on March 30, 1997 at 20:36:15


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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 3.15.97: Top | Help