However, there are limits to their powers. They can make the sea captain ‘dwindle, peak, and pine’ (line 23) but ‘his bark cannot be lost’ (line 24). As Macbeth and Banquo enter the heath, on their way home from their victorious battle, the Witches prepare themselves with a charm.

Also, to stay on the topic of the witches, when Banquo meets the witches, he connotes that they are unnatural: “What are these,/So withered, and so wild in their attire,/That look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth/And yet are on ‘t? (I. iii. 40-43). He confusedly notices their beards, knowing that they are women.

These unnatural occurrences include the sky becoming dark during the middle of the day, a lesser owl killing a mighty falcon, Duncan’s horses breaking out of their stalls and killing one another, and the violent weather destroying homes. All of these occurrences represent nature’s discontent with Duncan’s death.

The witches tell Macbeth to not ask any more questions, but he will not be appeased until they have given him an answer. This prompts the witches to show Macbeth the fourth (and final) apparition. Macbeth then sees a line of eight kings marching past him, of which the last of these holds a mirror in his hand.

The witches symbolize the following: (1) They symbolize the darkness and depravity of the human soul, the part of the soul that bends itself toward evil and darkness; (2) The witches influence the external forces that tempt humans; (3) More specifically, the witches symbolize the darkness that resides in Macbeth’s …

What reasons can you think of as to why Macbeth is first introduced to us through the witches? To establish the importance of fate and superstition in the play. Elizabethan’s feared the supernatural. The witches, in a sense, foreshadowed Macbeth’s personality and his fate.