Why did shakespeare choose to write about the witches in Macbeth?

Answer 1

Most people believe that Shakespeare used the witches and other elements of the supernatural in the play "Macbeth" because a. it added a dramatic effect to the play and b. the new monarch at that time (James I) was very interested in the supernatural. So Shakespeare probably used this play to impress the king! Also, around the time that Shakespeare was writing this play, a lot of people were persecuted for being "witches", so you could think of "Macbeth" as an early form of satire!

Answer 2

He didn't. Scholars think that Shakespeare's original play contained only the two scenes of prophecy: the one in Act one and the "Cauldron Scene". But the witches were extremely popular figures, so Thomas Middleton was called in to amplify the witches' part and to give them a few song and dance numbers. He also created a new character, Hecate. Middleton probably wrote and added the first scene in the play and Act 3, Scene 5 with Hecate, as well as amplifying the Cauldron scene, adding Hecate and some song and dance. The stage direction "Music and a song, 'Black Spirits' &c." alludes to the Witches' Song "Black Spirits" which was written by Middleton. This is why he is suspected of being the adapter.

Answer 3

The witches present the awakening of Macbeth's ambition. They also serve to develop a dark mood and setting throughout the whole play because after scene one, the setting is changed to a battlefield.

His main reason for putting them first was that they were attention-getting without being the main characters in the play. They would be likely to distract the audience away from flirting and buying Oranges or whatever.

Answer 4

Witches were a popular subject for plays in Shakespeare's day. He had included a witch called Margery Jourdain in his earlier play Henry VI Part 2, and Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet imitates a witch's "conjuring". The witches are peripheral in Macbeth, but became the main subject of a number of later plays, including The Witch, a play by Thomas Middleton from about three years after Macbeth, The Witch of Edmonton (a very successful play, 1621), and The Late Lancashire Witches. It was a topical subject, of interest to many people and not just to the king. What is interesting is that the play was not successful at the time, was not printed and not chosen to be performed for the wedding of Princess Elizabeth in 1612, and was substantially reworked (possibly around 1615) by adding new material in the style of Middleton's more successful play and old song-and-dance numbers from that play, in which the witches are depicted as cute and playful. King James may have been frightened of witches, but the general public apparently wasn't.