PRO AND CONS OF WITCHES IN MACBETH’S TRAGEDY

In the Macbeth’s tragedy the witches are the substance of the story: without them there isn’t story. Moreover in different works of Shakespeare we can find the witchcraft: very important in the medieval period. 

They are very important in Macbeth‘s tragedy, they appear two time and they convince Macbeth to do different things with their predictions, increasing Macbeth’s ambition. At the first time they get off the story and in the second moment they change the situation of Macbeth, giving him trouble. Nowadays it seems us a silliness believing in a story like "Macbeth" because we have new instruments to base on, but in the Middle Ages the people believed in witchcraft. Some of them had different doubt and they turned up to the witches to know the answer. For example when someone was afraid asked to the witches about his/her future.  For this reason, Shakespeare uses the witches: to draw the attention of the people of all sorts of social classes in his works, both the ignorant people and the cultured ones. So all the people of the Middle Ages could be interested to read the different tragedies of Shakespeare.

On the other hand, the witches are a referent point for the people: they know the future and have magical powers; but they don’t always say the truth because they suggest or predict to someone just what they want to happen. So in the Middle Ages men and women believed in what the witches said and didn’t used their own head to face a problem.

To sum up, I think that the witchcraft is important in Shakespearian works and it is an essential part of them because the witches represent a turning point in the different stories, especially in the Macbeth’s tragedy.