This scene was 3 witch’s having a conversation about where they will next meet up, mentioning a battle and meeting Macbeth. They say: “when the hurly-burley’s done, When the battles lost and won.” and “Paddock calls -Anon!- Fair is foul, foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air.” These are paradox’s, and I think they mean they don’t care if the battle is won or lost (they don’t pick sides?) and that they think fair (good) stuff is bad and bad stuff is good-could be appearance vs reality. This makes the audience know that they are strange beings. It also gets them interested because they are witch’s (very big at the time) and mention hovering through air, witch is not normal…
The main point of this scene was to grab the audiences attention with a interesting start. It would have been performed in a open air theatre with an atmosphere much like todays sports matches. A place like this is called Shakespeare globe, built in 1598 and rebuilt in 1614. It is still around today. The stage is at the front and the audience sits or stands on different levels around it depending on their wealth. The poor people would be crammed in around the stage on the floor, while the rich would be up on the surrounding platforms with good views. There were no female actors in Shakespeare day because women were banned from working, so the play is probably very male biased and the girls would have been acted by men.
I predict that in this play Macbeth will become badly influenced by the witch’s, and that will lead him to make bad decisions that (knowing Shakespeare) will most likely leave him dead and his friends and family in ruin.
