Not all film versions of the play start and end with the witches. Orson Welles' 1948 film does, in order to reinforce the idea that the witches totally controlled Macbeth and caused him to do everything he did. In this film he was their plaything. Roman Polanski's 1971 film ends with Donalbain seeking out the witches to get help against his brother Malcolm. In Polanski's film the witches represent less a dominating force but rather a resource of evil to which human beings are drawn in their lust for power. Polanski is making the point that the evil tendencies recur inevitably.
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Hecate is the leader of the witches in the play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare (Baptized April 26, 1564 - April 23, 1616).Specifically, Hecate does not appear until Act 3 Scene 5. She meets with the three witches who appear in the play's opening scene. Hecate chides them for making and carrying out plans regarding Macbeth without consulting her first.
Shakespeare creates a ere, ominous, dark, evil tone in the short opening scene.
The three witches appear in Act 1, Scene 1 and Act 1, Scene 3 of Shakespeare's play Macbeth. They meet Macbeth and Banquo on the heath and deliver prophecies that set the events of the play in motion.
Two scenes in Macbeth start out with the witches. Which one are you talking about?
The famous lines "Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble" are from William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. The lines are spoken by the three witches as they brew a potion in Act 4, Scene 1.
The complete, original sentence was 'By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes'. It was stated by one of the witches in Act 4 Scene 1 of the play 'Macbeth'… by William Shakespeare [baptized April 26, 1564-April 23, 1616].
the three witches
Hecate, in a scene which is always cut from any production of the play because Shakespeare didn't actually write it.
Graymalkin and Paddock are the familiars of the witches in William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth." Graymalkin, a gray cat, and Paddock, a toad, are spirits that serve the witches and are mentioned in Act 1, Scene 1 of the play. They are symbolic of the supernatural elements present throughout the play.
It depends which witches' scenes you are talking about. The key and most important scene is Act I Scene III, which is a scene taken from Holinshed's Chronicles, Shakespeare's source for the story. The purpose of this scene is to provide the motive power by which the story will run. It is the inciting incident of the plot. Act I Scene I is a scene designed to get the audience's attention so they will stop talking to their neighbours, pinching the orange-sellers and so on, and pay some attention to what was going on on stage. The other witches' scenes, and I include the famous Act IV Scene 1 in this, are superfluous. Their purpose is for the most part to be amusing, by portraying the witches as cutesy fairies who dance about to music and sing songs, while speaking in iambic tetrameter instead of blank verse. Act IV Scene 1 also is a pretext for including the dumb show line of kings which would help get the play past the censors, being flattering to King James.
The scene between Herrick and the accused witches in The Crucible is meant to be humorous. Its significance is to illustrate how bad the conditions are.