macbeth

[WaterRaven]

does anyone know how true macbeth is? cause the witches in the play are supposed to be ugly and have beards and stuff and my english teacher says thats how witches looked then and were associated with evil.i dunno anything about that time period(which is 11th-15th century scotland and england)if anyone can lend me some info about this i would be grateful.
bb
waterraven

[Theres]

witches then, as now, were people like you and i. and i don't think that humans have changed that much since the middle ages.
human percerption is a different matter though. i
t seems to be our nature to depict that which is percieved to be 'evil' as ugly, and that which is seen to be 'good' as beautiful.
and that of course is ridiculous.
this is probably what your teacher meant. if he/she actually intended to say that witches back then were ugly because they were evil, then your teacher is VERY closed minded, and more than just a little confused.
i have few friends who are not Pagan, and many of them are witches. and i have to tell you, a more beautiful group of people i have never known!

"Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble..."

[*~*Chary*~*]

hit me if thios is a stupid question but how can ur friends not be pagan but still be wiches

[Myst]

I think the appearance of the witches in Macbeth was more symbolic then realistic.

And Chary, witches are sometimes thought of as people who practice magic, sometimes with a religion or without one. Pagans definitely have some sort of religion, but may or may not practice magic. I think you can be both, one or the other, or neither. That's how I see it anyway. :)

[Theres]

you may be right Myst, but i think Chary's misunderstanding is my fault.
what i meant to say is that almost all of my friends ARE Pagan (few of them are not), and that many of THEM are witches.
and while we're at it, there is another misconception i would like to disspell...

"colder than a witches tit"

after EXTENSIVE research, i can honestly say that this rumor is entirely unfounded!

[Earthcup]

:rotfl:

*composes herself and crosses her arms* :devil:

[Mithrea]

The presence of the witches in MacBeth were a direct attempt to gain the favor of the King of England at the time who was terrified of Witches and very paranoid. That's why he made them so nasty. I could be mistaken, it's been a few semesters since I covered that play in class (although Shakespeare is my area of emphasis for my MA) but it might have been the same James that made up :T the KJV Incidentally the KJV changes all of the instances of "poisoners" to "witches" for the same reason.

[Djiril]

I read an article in Rennisance magizine about this. It said that the reason he was so afraid of them was that back in Scotland there was a group of "witches" who tried to cast spells against him using hairs or anything else that came from his body. They were finally arrested after a failed attempt to steal his underwear, and there are many references to them in Macbeth.

The real Macbeth is said to have consulted sourcerers, and Shakespeare changed them to witches to please King James.

[Mithrea]

Oh, thanks Djiril. I was a bit fuzzy on the details.

[Azure]

Okay, having performed this play twice, I feel the need to point out that very little in the play has much basis in historical fact, although most of the characters are sort of based on real people. However, there is even some disagreement among historians as to who Macbeth really was.

The witches were a direct response to James I of Scotland and England, as someone mentioned, who had a deadly paranoia of "witchcraft." But his notion of witchcraft was directly fed by Knoxian Protestantism and a really intense misogyny. James' dislike for his own mother and his cousin Queen Elizabeth, from whom he received his thrones, also played a part in it all.

However, I'd like to point out that if you look at Shakespeare's script, it subverts all the things that James felt, even though it seems to be written to please him. I'd submit to you that the "evil", man dominating woman - Lady Macbeth - who may be rather based on popular notions about Mary of Scotland - who calls on spirits and urges Macbeth to kill Duncan, becomes remorseful and potentially sympathetic when we last see her, while the King does not. And he's sort of a not very bright guy, who is easily led.

And the witches win - everything they predict comes true, in spite of the best efforts of everyone else, and Malcolm, a better king, ultimately succeeds by figuring out the witches riddle saying that Birnam Wood must come to Dunsinane.

On a personal note, the first time I did the show, and played a witch - and believe me, we weren't hags. . . Sort of more along the lines of Drusilla from "Buffy." Last spring, when I played Lady Macbeth, I played her very much as the fourth "witch":

"Come, you spirits that tend on Mortal thoughts. . ."