Macbeth Group

Question:

sakara
sakara
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What is the role of Hecate in "Macbeth"?

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Posted by sakara on Monday September 15, 2008 at 5:38 AM and tagged with apparitions, characters, hecate, macbeth, witches.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    Hecate appears in Act III, Scene V (there seems to be a mistake in the enotes linking of the text - and it's suggesting, incorrectly, that Hecate appears in Act V, Scene V). She arrives, looking angerly, and makes an angry speech to her fellow witches:

    How did you dare
    To trade and traffic with Macbeth
    In riddles and affairs of death;(5)
    And I, the mistress of your charms,
    The close contriver of all harms,
    Was never call'd to bear my part,
    Or show the glory of our art?

    Traditionally the queen of the witches, Hecate seems to want to be more involved in the witches' manipulation of Macbeth. Hecate later makes a rather spurious appearance in Act 4, Scene 1, and is mentioned by Macbeth in his soliloquy Act 3, Scene 2.

    But - and this is the key point - most scholars believe that Hecate and her scenes are NOT written by Shakespeare, and were later added to the play by another playwright (probably Thomas Middleton, who wrote another play entitled "The Witch"). So they're not usually written about or considered as part of "Macbeth".

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth-text/act-V-scene-v

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    Posted by robertwilliam on Monday September 15, 2008 at 7:21 AM