Perhaps after having read Macbeth and
after having witnessed what kind of relationship Macbeth develops with the preternatural
world, the reader may infer that the first witch implies that she will make Macbeth
weak, drying him of his masculinity and strength of character which enables him to
control his own actions.
While Macbeth in the first act
does listen to the three witches as they foretell his becoming Thane of Cawdor, he
remarks aside
This supernatural
soliciting
Cannot be ill, cannot be good.
(I,iii,130-131)
Still, he is
intrigued and wonders, in another aside,
If chance will have me King, why, chance may
crown me,
Without my stir.
(I,iii,144-145)
Later, in Act
II, Macbeth replies to Banquo's remarks about his having dreamt of the "three weird
sisters": "I think not of them" (II,i,22). However, by the latter acts of the play,
Macbeth seeks the witches to hear what they next predict. After killing Duncan and
having Banquo killed, but missing in the murder of Banquo's son, Macbeth--true to the
witch's words--is worn out with fatigue as he sees Banquo's ghost. Truly he does live
"like a man forbid," worn out with anxiety about anyone who can take the throne from
him. He feels compelled to visit the "weird sisters" again in Act IV. The first witch
tells him to beware the thane of Fife, and the second tells him that he cannot be harmed
by anyone of woman.
Haunted by these prophesies and under
the spell of the witches whose one member says she will do harm the complete number of
three times (always a significant and spiritual number), Macbeth has succumbed to the
power of the preternatural world; he does, indeed, live like a man under a curse, worn
out with fatigue as the first witch predicts,
He shall live a man
forbid.
Weary sen'nights nine times
nine
Shall he dwindle, peak, and
pine;
Though his bark cannot be
lost,
Yet it shall be
tempest-tost.
Look what I have.
(I,iii,21-25)
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