"Macbeth" Analysis Outline

What do the three witches predict in the beginning of the story? Do you think that the three witches are antagonists or protagonists? Why?

• What do the three witches predict in the beginning of the story?
• They meet Macbeth and Banquo at a heath and predict future events.
• Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor and become the king of Scotland (Horton 206).
• Banquo will not be a king, but his descendants will become kings

• Do you think that the three witches are antagonists or protagonists? Why?
• The witches are antagonists
• They told Macbeth that he will be king; this is the stimulus for Macbeth's extreme ambitiousness.
• Macbeth's ambitiousness and later murder of Duncan are the cause of the whole tragedy
• The apparitions the witches summon give Macbeth a false sense of security.
• "For none of woman born shall harm Macbeth" (Horton 250).
• Birnan wood coming to Dunsinane

Work Cited

Shakespeare, William. "Macbeth." British Literature. Ed. Ronald A. Horton. Greenville: Bob Jones UP, 1999. 199-277. Print.