Benefiting from the presence of evil.
Nick LeBlond
ENG 3UE
Rockland District High School
April 7, 2008
Lurking in every corner, under every bed the minions of Satan lurk, at least this was believed in the Elizabethan and Jacobean times. In the Elizabethan and Jacobean times everyone believed that witches, ghosts, and minions of Satan were everywhere. Since they had no knowledge that these supernatural beings could not be real or even exist they really truly believed that they were everywhere. It was the belief of the time and most of the people just accepted that there were forces of evil everywhere and it had an impact on many people’s lives. Since everyone in the Elizabethan and Jacobean times believed in the presence of evil, Shakespeare was able to benefit himself by putting witches and witchcraft in his play “Macbeth”.
Since everyone was so curious about the presence of evil in the world it allowed Shakespeare play “Macbeth” to grab peoples attention right from the get go. It was very important that in Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth” that he grabbed the audience’s attention right from the start. By having witches and witchcraft for the first scene he had everybody sitting at the edge of their seats in the first scene. He used everyone’s profound curiosity for the presence of evil and witches to pull the average person into his play right from the start. The presences of evil at the beginning of Shakespeare’s plays are a common thing (besides the exception with the exceptions where the plays begin with a riot).
By putting the witches and witchcraft in his play Shakespeare grabbed the immediate attention of king James the first and sixth. This benefited Shakespeare greatly because the purpose of this play was to somewhat suck up to king James the first and sixth so he could join the Lord Chamberlain’s men. This made it very important to Shakespeare to add in witches and witchcraft into his play. Shakespeare new that king James the first and sixth was very intrigued by witches and witch craft because of the fact that he wrote a book about how to ketch a witch and what to do with one. So by having witchcraft in his play he knew it would grab the attention of king James the first and sixth.
Even if you look at today’s society as an example. In movies and television shows today still shows ghosts, witches, and other presences of evil. This is because it interests people still to the day. Some people do still believe in minions of Satan and other supernatural beings as well. So by using the witches in his play “Macbeth” he insured that people would be drawn into his play and that people would be interested and stay and watch his plays. Even now a days every book, every show and movie, even if you look in music they all have a “hook”. They all have something that draws the viewer or the person listening to it in and keeps their attention. The witches were Shakespeare “hook” at the beginning of the play.
Ever since humans came to be we always wanted and always will want to know the things we know little about. This is what drives us to do many things. There would be no discoveries at all in science if nobody had the curiosity to question certain things. Shakespeare used people’s curiosity in the witches in Macbeth to benefit from it. He knew once he added the curiosity of how the witch’s predictions will come to be it would ensure that people would want to watch his play and end up enjoying it.
In “Macbeth” the witches also added another unique characteristic to the play. The witches acted as a way to add curiosity and intrigue people to insure that they will pay more attention to the play. They drew in attention from the audience with phrases like “Fair is foul, and foul is fair…” and other phrases to make the audience really think about the context of what they were saying. This further more got attention from the audience, which is what Shakespeare wanted when he added the witches in the play.
The witches in this play had a major part in foreshadowing in the play. They literally predicted what was going to happen later in Macbeth’s life on multiple occasions. This had a big affect on Shakespeare’s audience because when there is that much foreshadowing done by a witch or other presence of evil you are so intrigued you want to stay and see if it all comes together. The witches had such a unique way of foreshadowing too by making things seem impossible. For example the second time Macbeth hears the witches apparitions the witches say, “Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes. Who frets, or where conspirers are. Macbeth shall never vanquished be until Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill Shall come against him.”. In Macbeth’s eyes he sees this as impossible (and so does the audience at this point) but since the other apparitions so far came true the audience wants to keep watching to see if this one comes true (which later it does). So this added a great deal of curiosity to the audience.
The witch’s predictions in “Macbeth” aloud the audience to have clues into what was going to happen later in the play. This allowed the audience to become very curious in what might happen later in the play allowing Shakespeare to benefit from their curiosity. He benefited from their curiosity because with the witches he had “hooked” the audience into his play and he knew they would want to keep watching it and enjoy it. By using the presence of evil in witches he almost guaranteed himself a successful play and practically guarantied that people including king James the first and sixth would want to stay and watch his work. Therefore the witches and presence of evil allowed Shakespeare to benefit by keeping his audiences attention.
The presence of evil will always bring curiosity to peoples minds. Shakespeare new this and used this to get his audience’s attention and king James the first and sixths attention. This was a great technique used to benefit his plays because everyone in the Elizabethan and Jacobean days was so caught up in that presence of evil is everywhere. So by using the presence of evil in the witches Shakespeare was able to capture the audience’s attention and really benefit himself.
People of Elizabethan and Jacobean times truly believed that the presence of evil and the minions of Satan were everywhere. Shakespeare used this knowledge to benefit from peoples fear and curiosity of the unknown evil in his plays. Using the example of the witches in “Macbeth” Shakespeare was able to capture the attention of king James the first and sixth as well as the audience to make them want to watch the whole play. People have a natural curiosity of the presence of evil therefore we always want to learn and know more about the things we know little about. William Shakespeare took advantage of this known fact with most or even all of his plays and used this curiosity of the presence of evil to benefit himself.
References:
(Best, Michael, http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/stage/chamberlainsmen.html, april 9, 2008)
(Shakespeare, Page 7)
(Shakespeare, Page 127)