CC - IV: Macbeth: Significance of the opening scene

 

William Shakespeare's play Macbeth  begins supernaturally. .It opens with three witches holding the stage. It recalls the opening of Hamlet which, too, is steeped in the supernatural, the ghost of Hamlet's father stirs the  castle mysteriously. Obviously, Macbeth, in tune with the uncanny spirit of the play begins with a scene wrapped in darkness. It is the dead night and the physical world is one of choss and anarchy.  In fact, this scene establishes the atmosphere of mystery and horror and introduces the underlying forces that will control the action of the play. A scene of supernatural evil is conveyed by the thunder and lightning and by the appearance of the witches later described by Banquo (Act I, sce III, 1.39-47)

            To begin with, the place where the scene is laid appears to be a widespread health marked by desolation. The witches are three in number (suggesting some thing occult) and speak in cryptic enigmatic language. They propose to meet Macbeth ( Whom we do not yet know) when the battle( what the battle is about, where it is being fought and between whom - all remain a mystery) is lost and won(a puzzle apparently! how both lost and won?) and they soon vanish with a last enigma about fair being foul and foul being fair. It suggests one aspect of them-they are mystery personified. The mystery, again, is heightened by their attachment to such abominable creatures as "graymalkin" and "paddock".

                What is striking to note is that the witches already have an interest in Macbeth, and he is thus first introduced to the audience in a powerful, if undefined atmosphere of evil. The atmosphere of suspense makes the audience curious about the encounter between Macbeth and the witches. The parting paradoxical song of the witches "fair is foul, and foul is fair" strikes the keynote to the theme of the play. It also illuminates the character of the witches "the law of human nature"(in Coleridge's phase) to whom fair is foul and foul is fair. This sums of the reversal of normal moral values which is the central principle of Saturnism- as Satan says in Milton paradise lost- "Evil, be thou my good". They represent a world of moral anarchy, topsy -turvydom, abnormality and disorder. Moreover, they suggests the point that they play is to deal with a man who starts as a fair general and ends as a foul Butcher. The tragedy of Macbeth, it is subtly implied, marks the passing of a  man from fairness to foulness, from prosperity to adversity. In this respect, the opening scene tunes up the sprit of the play, i.e. what is elaborated in the succeeding scenes of the play. When Macbeth makes his first appearance in the play and the words with which he starts speaking ("so foul and fair a day I have not seen ") reinforce the underlying spiritual affinity between Macbeth and the witches . The matter indicates that Macbeth is already under the evil spell of the witches, though he himself is altogether unaware of it .

          Thus, the opening scene of the play Macbeth is highly evocative, suggestive and captivating. Shakespeare always excels in his opening scenes, Macbeth being no exception. A.C. Bradly truly remarks-"there is probably no  parallel", to this scene.