What do the ingredients used by the three witches symbolise? (9)

We know that the three witches prepare a mixture of poison in the cauldron in Act 4 Scene 1. Why did the witches use all those things as the ingredients? Why not they used other things? This matter has aroused my interest in knowing the truth. I guess the ingredients must be related to something else. Or else Shakespeare will not use those things in his writing. 

I clicked I searched and lastly I got the answers! The witches mixed all the plants, animals and human beings to create the potion. These are all the ingredients that used by the witches – a toad, a slice of swamp snake, a newt’s eye, a frog’s tongue, a bat’s fur, a dog’s tongue, a black snake’s forked tongue, a burrowing worm’s stinger, a lizard’s leg, an owl’s wing, a scale of dragon, a wolf’s tooth, a witch’s mummified flesh, the gullet and stomach of a ravenous shark, a root of hemlock (a very poisonous plant) that was dug up in the dark, a liver of Christian that is not baptized, a goat’s bile, slips of pine trees, a Turk’s nose, a Tartar’s lips, finger of a baby that was born dead by a prostitute, a tiger’s gut and a baboon’s blood. There are 23 ingredients altogether. Now I would like to put it in table to categorize them in their groups. 

Animal	Human	Plant
1.      Toad 2.      Snake 3.      Newt’s eye 4.      Frog’s tongue 5.      Bat’s fur 6.      Dog’s tongue 7.      Black snake’s forked tongue 8.      Burrowing worm’s stinger 9.      Lizard’s leg 10. Owl’s wing 11. Scale of dragon 12. Wolf’s tooth 13. Gullet and stomach of shark 14. Goat’s bile 15. Tiger’s gut 16. Baboon’s blood (large monkey lives in Africa and South Asia)	1.      Witch’s mummified flesh 2.      Liver of Christian that is not baptized 3.      A Turk’s nose 4.      A Tartar’s lips 5.      Finger of a baby	1.      Root of hemlock 2.      Slips of pine trees

         Wahh… It really takes time to identify all the ingredients. Okay, let’s proceed to the main point. Why the witches combined plants, animals and human’s organs in the potion? The witches prepare the potion symbolises the arrival of Macbeth. Potion that is made from strange ingredients represents the dark sides of the witches and at the same time, it foreshadows the evil sides of Macbeth too. The witches plan to push Macbeth to destruction, so the strange ingredients symbolise the witches’ plan and the potion symbolises the excitement in Macbeth’s soul. Throughout the scene, the potion is important for the witches to control and manipulate Macbeth. So, the number of ingredients is important too as it represents the downfall of Macbeth by his greed. Put it in a simpler way. (Potion --> the evil of the witches --> the dark sides of Macbeth)          --> = Symbolises

We can see that plants only consist of 2 types of tree which are hemlock and pine tree. I looked for the definition of hemlock in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Updated Version. Hemlock means ‘a very poisonous plant, or the poison that is made from it’. As for pine tree, it means ‘a tall tree with hard sharp leaves that do not fall off in winter’. From these 2 definitions, hemlock is a kind of poison and pine tree has sharp leaves which never fall in winter. In my opinion, ‘sharp leaves’ of pine tree means cruel and violent, and stubborn and strong because it never fall in winter. 

            Ingredients from human beings are very important too in symbolism. For example, the baby’s finger symbolises the future murder. 

“The reference to a child's finger suggests the future murder of Macduff's precocious son who tells his mother there are more evil men than good shortly before they break in and stab him.  Macduff himself was cut from his mother's womb at the moment of her death.  Whenever a child could not be birthed naturally, he/she had to be cut out of the womb before the mother went into shock.  After the mother's abdomen was cut, she would die.  Thus her stomach is destroyed, just as the witches speak of the gullet and stomach.”

 You may refer to this link: http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/q-and-a/what-ingredients-what-witches-preparing-and-how-78105

 

            As for parts of animals, the ingredients symbolise hallucination. Most of the animals used are not pets. They are wild animals which cannot control by human. In this website, http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/q-and-a/play-macbeth-what-do-ingredients-chant-act-4-66029/, it summaries the used of those ingredients.

“The first witch puts in ingredients which are hallucinogenic, creating (presumably) the apparitions which appear to Macbeth. 

The second witch adds animal parts dismembered from animals, and with a particular emphasis on the disgusting (eye of newt, toe of frog).

The third witch initially adds parts of animals which are a little weirder than the second witch's (scale of dragon!) but then adds in human body parts all of which have an anti-Christian theme: the Jew,the Turk and the Tartar are all non-christians.

So, in short, the ingredients represent things which bring on hallucinations, disgusting parts of supposedly poisonous, or magical, animals, and finally, things which specifically make the witches' brew a heathen, unChristian potion.”

In another way, the combination of the ingredients symbolise Macbeth is no longer a complete normal human beings because he has become a half-man and half-animal. 

I think that’s all for this entry. I hope this entry can help my friends to get clearer and better views of the ingredients used by the witches. 

Thank you.

~ Emily Yoong Ai Nee ~ 154565 ~ Entry 9 ~