What is Hecate doing in this Play?
Ok so this may seem like a minor, but the very last scene of act three introduces, or rather reveals, that Hecate, this mythical god, is actual a physical entity in this world. What is she doing here? I thought when people made allusions to god, it was about the Christianity monotheistic one who created Adam and Eve. Hecate is part of the Greek Parthenon, who are famous for not being morally scrupulous all the time. I suppose that it makes sense to have a God that is from a ledger of not necessarily "good" gods, but why bring her in so late into the story? She function no purpose except to inform the readers that stuff is about to kick into overdrive in the plot. In fact, she actually lessens the power of the witches, who go from this seemingly omnipotent force of nature to just more humans under the influence of Gods. I feel she would have been better left as a narrative allusion.
I think the purpose of including Hecate is Shakespeare's attempt to comment on the common theme of prophecies and fate which are present in many great literary works. Hecate appears in this scene to scold the witches for telling Macbeth his fate. However, this leads me to question whether Macbeth's prophecy would come true if the witches hadn't told him his fate. Before being told he would gain the title of king, Macbeth didn't seem to express any interest in the matter. In fact, he was even shocked when granted the role of Thane of Cawdor because he assumed Duncan would give a higher lord this position. In addition, I believe the witches knew to tell Macbeth his fate immediately before he was granted this title so that he would believe them and go crazy with the ambition of becoming king. Hecate is thus calling attention to the fact that the witches permanently changed Macbeth's life after revealing his fate to him.
ReplyDeleteThis is super interesting, and I do not have a great answer. The reason I think Shakespeare includes Hecate is to further disillusion the reader into questioning is fate something thats set in stone, or something humans make/alter? By including Hecate (clearly a leader of the witches) who states, "why would you tell him (Macbeth) his fate" there is greater evidence that Macbeth's fate has already been decided; of course Hectate does not make this conclusion set-in-stone. As we have discussed in class, Macbeth killing Duncan and Banquo was not included in the original prophesy although it was presumed necessary in order to fulfill it.
ReplyDeleteThe Weird Sisters appear to be omnipotent/omniscient before Hecate appears as they can control the main characters' lives. With Hecate, we see that the Weird Sisters have a superior and are not the most powerful beings. This relates to the idea that no matter how far Macbeth progresses, there will always be some disclaimer in his prophecy that will prevent him from maintaining his power. In the final scene of the 1971 movie adaptation of Macbeth, Donalbain rides to find the Weird Sisters, presumably seeking his own prophecy to gain power. I think the director of that film believed one of the main ideas of Macbeth is that no one can hold the top of the food chain for very long.
ReplyDeleteit's interesting that you brought this up. I agree with the fact that she kind of make the three witches seem less than how they came off in the beginning of the play by reprimanding them.
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