What do you consider to be the importance of witches in Macbeth Coursework

What do you consider to be the importance of witches in Macbeth - Coursework interpreterOne of the witches tells MacBeth that he is the thane of Glamis (I, i, 45-46). The second witch tells MacBeth that he is the thane of Cawdor (I, i, 49-50). The third witch tells MacBeth that that shalt be King hereafter (I, i, 51-52). Epstein (422) states that, after the final pronouncement by the final witch, MacBeths hair stands on end and his feeling starts pounding. This shows that this is something that MacBeth has thought about himself that he could be King, if only Duncan were out of the vogue. Epstein (422) further notes that the record book wyrd, which was what the witches were called, as they were referred to as unearthly babes, (I, i, 31), is actually misinterpreted. The modern plays interpret the word wyrd as being the same as weird in modern day language. After all, the three women were very weird. When we first meet them, one of them is cleanup spot swine, and the other one speaks in rhymes such as in a sieve Ill thither sail, and like a rat without a tail (I,i,8-9), and Here I have a buffer storages thumb, wrackd as homeword he did come. A drum A drum MacBeth did come (I, i, 29-31). Perhaps in Shakespeares day it wasnt weird to speak in rhymes in the plays, so the audience for Shakespeare mogul not have thought that this was out of place, but the rhyming definitely made that particular sister seem weird. Therefore, the fact that the sisters are referred to as weird might be a modern-day explanation of them and their overall characters. But Epstein (422) states that the word that was actually used as wyrd, which means fate. This would bring a course of translations for the witches, assuming that the word is wyrd and the meaning is fate. This would be a pun, but a very meaningful one. This would be an answer to one of the questions that is central to the play, and that is whether or not our fate is determined by our own pass or by some kind of out side force. The outside force would be the witchs influence over MacBeth and Lady MacBeth, both of whom are prudent for the bloodbath that is to follow. The implication is that the witches are responsible for MacBeth and Lady MacBeths overwhelming ambition that created the situation where there was a string of murders that MacBeth, an inherently honorable man, commits. If it were not for the outside influence on the proceedings at hand, there is not a way that a man like MacBeth could have done what he did. After all, the word fate implies a lack of control that whatever happens in this world is predestined, and that we are powerless to stop it. Therefore, one of the functions of the witches is both in their persona and in the double entendre on the word weird, in that their persona is what ostensibly controls the situation, and the word weird, possibly means fate in this context. There is another meter reading of the word wyrd, according to Epstein, and this interpretation lead s one to the opposite conclusion as the interpretation above. This is that the word might suggest wayward. This would imply that the witches were not even real, but, rather, were figments of MacBeths imagination. This interpretation would suggest that fate was not in control, at all, but, rather, MacBeths cryptical seated ambition is what is in control. This would imply that what happens to him is a terminus of his own free will, not the result of the witches influencing the proceedings a