The Witches' Opening Scene
Ever wondered why Macbeth feels so dark and unsettling from the very first moment? It's all down to how Shakespeare introduces the three witches in Act 1, Scene 1.
The witches don't speak like normal characters - they use rhyming couplets and trochaic tetrameter, which creates a rhythmic, chant-like quality that sounds genuinely eerie. This isn't accidental; Shakespeare wanted them to sound otherworldly and threatening. For audiences in the Jacobean era, witches were terrifying figures blamed for real disasters, not the entertaining characters we might see them as today.
These supernatural beings are all-knowing - they can see the future and know exactly when and where to meet Macbeth. This god-like knowledge would have been particularly shocking to Shakespeare's religious audience, who saw such powers as blasphemous.
Key Insight: The witches establish the tone for the entire play - if Macbeth starts with evil supernatural forces, you know things won't end well!
The scene ends with their famous paradox: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." This line perfectly captures how nothing in Macbeth will be as it seems - good will become evil, victory will become defeat, and heroes will become villains.