Discuss the Dramatic Role or Significance of the Witches in This Play

In this play "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare the role of the witches and supernatural are central to the play. Although all of supernatural do not have exactly same role in the play, the main purposes of supernatural are to attract the attention from audience, to foreshadow future events, to show the characteristics of individual, and to connect the idea with the themes. Also, this idea of witchcraft and demonology is continued throughout as to emphasis on the antithesis to the divinely ordained order of the universe and helps create dramatic emphasis. As evident from the play, special uses of clothing and weather helps determine the true character of the witches.
Shakespeare has chosen to write this play where the topics explored within the play were very relevant to the time in which it was written. Practising witchcraft became an executable offence in 1604 so the witches in the play would have caused quite some controversy. …