Macbeth Act VI

“By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes” signifies the entrance of Macbeth in this scene. The witches give him more predictions via the use of horrible apparitions. This is a chilling scene and wickedness resonates throughout.  Despite the awful gimmicks of the witches and their constant rhyming spell like speech, they posses a great deal of power over events. The witches are agents of the fates I believe, helping along the inevitable, but twisting the events into an awful bloodbath for their own and Hecate’s amusement. This chilling vision of evil at the beginning of the Act really sets up for the horror of the remainder of the play.

The horrendous murder of Macduff’s wife and children follows. This horrendous scene displays sums up the evil of the play and shows the disintegration of Macbeth’s integrity and now wickedness. Up until it was only men facing the harsh blow of murder, but this would have been the norm in this time. However now the blood of the innocent has been spilt. The pure wickedness of Macbeth really resounds in this scene.

We also see the grief of Macduff, which humanises the play and gives a more moral reason for the killing of Macbeth. Until this point in the play, murders had been played out horrifically, but the torture on those left behind had not been seen. This enforces more hate of the character of Macbeth.