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Critically analyse the opening scene in Macbeth.

The opening scene usually serves the purpose of an exposition and truly, what Coleridge pointed out, strikes a spiritual key-note. Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” is a tragedy of the triumph of evil: we are in a world of moral anarchy, symbolized by the withered beings, to whom " foul is fair ". In a drama, first impressions are lasting, and Shakespeare contrives to put the spectator in the right mood at once. The first scene, other than being expositional, establishes a mood or an atmosphere for the action of the play. The hostile weather featuring fog and filthy air’ and the loath some witches croaking out middles create a world of darkness and foulness in which are found the echoes of the sinister designs of Macbeth and his wife to be seen later. The gathering of the three witches or the weird sisters in a desolate place in heavy storm, thunder and lightning and their promise to meet after the storm of great Macbeth ‘upon the health’ before the sunset add to the drama’s great mystery and horror. Their decision to meet Macbeth keeps the audience with bated breath and it at once brings up a question in the minds –“what can this man called Macbeth have to do with these witches, rather the distasteful hags”?

The opening scene is important particularly in establishing a mood or an atmosphere in which the main action of the play will be seen by the audience. The scene is laid in ‘an open place’, a place removed from the ordinary human haunt, mundane business and usual social rules. The weather is not fevourable rather hostile to men, most disagreeable. The fog and filthy air suggests the universal darkness and unhealthiness and the appearance of the witches in a desert place, with thunder and lightning, symbolizes a barren place where evil runs rampant obtaining its mastery over all things. The storm, at its worst, not only harmonizes with their grotesque guise and rites, it is also a symbol of the present convulsion in Duncan’s Kingdom and of the still greater convulsion to come-a counter part to the hurly –burly of battle and murder. The explanation of the situation contaminates to the second scene. The customary exposition is avoided in the opening scene – the action is initiated in a symbolic sense which burst at once into wild life.