Posted by Mike on Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 8:27am.
1)The play opens with a meeting of the three witches in a desolate place. The stage is empty: There are no trees, no houses, no people, absolutely nothing.
2) Shakespeare has unhooked (I need a synonym) his work from time and place. The witches tell us that the next time they meet, it will be with Macbeth, and that this will occur before the sun goes down, when the hurlyburly is done and when a battle is lost and won. (How can I rephrase this?).
http://nfs.sparknotes.com/
This is an amazingly good website that will help you with Shakespearean language. Choose Macbeth and then go to the act and scene you need to read or reread. There you will find the original Shakespeare on the left and modern English on the right -- and they correspond perfectly with each other! Let me know what you decide for paraphrases or synonyms.
4) The first witch's question is connected with time, which is one of the main themes of the play. However, the answer is expressed in terms of space.
5) The second witch says that thay will meet upon the heath. This confusion between time and place is only the first of a long series of revesals whch will later dominate the play.
6) OK
7) They recite an ambiguous couplet and exit. For the witches, beautiful is ugly, and good is evil. They confuse the bad with the good.
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