How does costuming of the three Weird Sisters in Macbeth on the Shakespearean stage correspond to the identities of the stereotyped witches in Elizabethan England?

The three Weird Sisters, as supernatural witches in Shakespeare’s tragedy ‘Macbeth’ were stereotyped as grotesque and were disrespected in the Elizabethan society in which the play was performed. (Britannica School) Witches, in the context where ‘Macbeth’ was performed, ‘meet secretly at night, indulge in cannibalism and orgiastic rites with the Devil, and perform black magic.’, demonstrating a generally negative social stereotype that witches are dark and evil. (Britannica School) 

Although the play was staged in Elizabethan England in the 17th Century, sources including ‘Costuming the Shakespearean Stage’ and ‘Shakespeare’s Visual Theatre’ have highlighted the unconventionality of the supernatural’s costuming in that time period. This prompts the question of whether the Weird Sisters, in Shakespearean Theatre, were presented through elements including costume to correspond to the stereotyped witches’ identities.

As peculiar as their names may suggest, the Three Weird Sisters, their characterisation in the performance at the Globe Theatre, are considered ambiguous in terms of age, gender and status in society, as demonstrated by the elements of their costumes (Pitt 51). This investigation, divided up in sections, explores a variety of aspects that are related to supernaturals’ characters as reflected by the costuming in the production of ‘Macbeth’ at Shakespeare’s Globe. Since sources on this topic are generally limited, three aspects are investigated simultaneously for cross-reference: the Weird Sisters in the illustrated play script Macbeth, generalized meaning of the costuming in Shakespearean theatre, and specific costume of the Weird Sisters on the Shakespearean stage.

Gender

From the Elizabethan English theatre, ‘every play’ applied ‘codes of sex’ to establish meanings in the performance by meeting the ‘gendered expectations’ of the viewers. (Lublin 31) In Shakespearean theatre, costumes were a ‘primary’ way of revealing the gender of characters, as actors ‘carried notions of femininity and masculinity’ on the Shakespearean stage ‘in the costumes they wore’. (Lublin 31)

Noticeably, in Shakespearean theatre, characters were presented by ‘all male performers’ (Pitt 109) One ‘early solution’ to the ‘difficulties of representing mature women’ was to dress female characters so that they could appear ‘either young’ or ‘very old’. (Pitt 50) ‘Prosthetic breasts’ were used to create the differentiation. (Lublin 32) The effect, however, was that ‘ageing women’ were ‘played as caricatures’. (Pitt 50) In order to clearly differentiate gender roles in representing characters, Shakespearean theatre would usually highlight ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’  (Lublin 12)

When writing the play ‘Macbeth’, however, Shakespeare did not make the Weird Sisters appear clearly feminine or masculine. (Findlay 23) An alternate analysis of costuming in Shakespeare explains that instead of simply filling in ‘checklists of gender codes’, according to Materializing Gender in Early Modern English Theatre and Culture, Shakespeare’s characters, through their costumes, were dressed in ‘different costume elements’ that ‘“mattered” to a variety of degrees’. (Fisher 111)

According to historian W.C. Oulton, in an original production in Shakespeare’s contemporary time, the Weird Sisters’ identity as ‘preternatural beings’ is distinguished by the ‘fellness of their purposes’ and the ‘fatality of their delusions.’ (Shakespeare 773) This corresponds to Elizabethan society’s negative view of witches and supernaturals in general. (Britannica School) According to the ‘Introduction of Staging Elements’ section of ‘Macbeth’ in Four Tragedies, the Three Weird Sisters were dressed in ‘mittens, plaited caps, laced aprons, red stomachers, ruffs, etc.’ (Shakespeare 773) 

The ‘different costume elements’ suggested by Fisher can be analysed in order to determine the representation of the Weird Sisters’ gender through costuming. Ruffs were ‘fashionable’ among ‘both women and men’ in Shakespeare’s time, ‘early modern England’. (Lublin 17) Thus, ruffs may suggest gender neutrality and do not visually reveal the gender of the Weird Sisters. (Lublin 15) Stomachers, on the other hand, are ‘ornamental’ fronts that fill the ‘opening of the gown’ and convey a ‘false impression’ of a corset. (Kelly 39) Stomachers are labelled as one of the ‘generalised’ costumes of an ‘Elizabethan gentlewoman’ on the Shakespearean stage. (Lublin 16)  Stomachers, assumably, make the witches appear more feminine on-stage. According to  Banquo’s description of the Weird Sisters, the Weird Sisters also have ‘beards’ that ‘materially display’ masculinity, (Shakespeare 2567), which would be ‘strongly masculine’ on the Shakespearean stage. (Lublin 14) Viewed holistically, the ‘different costume elements’  apparently suggests the ambiguity of the Weird Sisters’ gender in ‘Macbeth’ on the Shakespearean stage.

Although such information could help one determine the ambiguity of the Weird Sister’s gender as found by matching their costuming descriptions to the conventions of such costumes at the time, stage directions regarding the Weird Sisters were kept at ‘minimum’. (Pitt 123) A ‘close analysis’ of the apparel worn on stage could be sometimes ‘difficult’, because ‘the play texts’ and ‘limited extant documentation’ usually offer insignificant information to ‘determine what the characters wore’. (Lublin 32) However, it is known to theatre historians that Shakespeare ‘chiefly alluded’ to Holinshod’s Chronicles, a fable from the Sixteenth-Century, when characterising the supernaturals in Macbeth. (Kiefer 110) 

The scene later turned out to appear in Act I of ‘Macbeth’. (Shakespeare 773) The woodcut, as Shakespeare’s ‘chief source’, contrasts the common perception of ‘sexual ambiguity’ of ‘aged’, ‘wild’, and ‘unattractive’ creatures but instead demonstrates ‘young’ and ‘attractive’ ‘women’. (Pitt 111) A spectator named Simon Forman, on the other hand, wrote after watching ‘Macbeth’ at the Globe on 20th April, 1611, that ‘ther was to be observed, firste, howe Macbeth and Bancko, 2 noble men of Scotland, ridinge thorowe a wod, the strode before them 3 women feiries or nimphes.’ (Pitt 121) Thus, there is a clear contradiction between the Weird Sisters described in Shakespeare’s script of ‘Macbeth’ based on Elizabethan society’s general perception of witches and the audience’s narrative of what he supposedly saw in the contemporary production of ‘Macbeth’ at Shakespeare’s Globe, since in the original script, Banquo describes the Weird Sisters upon his first encounter with them that ‘By each at once her choppy finger laying / Upon her skinny lips. You should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so’. Banquo’s account shows an ambivalence of the Weird Sisters’ apparent gender, while the spectator Forman’s description does not. In Shakespeare's visual theatre: staging the personified characters, the author suggests that Forman’s plot summary and general account sounded as though he was ‘remembering Holinshed (according to common opinion, women may be some nymphs or feires)’ rather than ‘what the playgoer heard or saw at the Globe.’ (Kiefer 110)

Although there are certain discrepancies from varied sources, costuming of the supernaturals in Macbeth, to a large extent, corresponds to the identity of the stereotyped witches in Shakespearean England in terms of their ambivalent gender that is typically interpreted as more feminine than masculine.

Status in Society

Costume, not only ‘presents gender’, but also ‘beauty’ as the ‘focus of attention of audience in many ways’ and is where ‘beauty and status lie’. (Pitt 111) Thus, costumes may reveal the supernatural’s status in society. 

Upon investigation, from their unconventional costumes, the supernaturals in ‘Macbeth’ could be surmised as isolated from the mainstream society just as witches were generally ‘not tolerated and indeed despised’ by the Elizabethan society (Britannica Schools). ‘“Demonic” inspirations’ and ‘“overturned” perceptions’ define the witches as they ‘see and do everything the wrong way up’. (Pitt 127) Hecate, the witches’ ‘mistress’ of ‘charms’ and ‘The close contriver of all harms’, castigates the Weird Sisters as ‘beldams’ in Act Three, Scene Five, that they are ‘saucy’ and ‘over-bold’ to ‘dare / To trade and traffic with Macbeth / In riddles and affairs of death’ (Shakespeare 2593) 

In Shakespearean stage, the ‘ordinary dress’ of female characters is symmetrical; the Weird Sisters, on the other hand, had ‘inverse’, ‘irregularly shaped’ costumes. (Pitt 127) Further, the typical Shakespearean women are dressed in ‘a solid color (some shade of black, brown, or gray)’, and the Weird Sisters, by contrast, are costumed in ‘a patchwork of disparate colors’.  (Pitt 127) In addition, whilst feminine costumes are typically soft in texture, that of the Weird sisters are ‘unusual’ in ‘evoking the skin of a snake’. (Pitt 127)

Thus, the Weird Sisters can be surmised to be outsiders of society, just as they are stereotyped in Elizabethan Society and in Shakespeare’s play text of ‘Macbeth’.

Secondly, ‘custom, hierarchy and providential order’ can generally be revealed through costuming in Shakespearean theatre productions at the Globe, including ‘Macbeth’. (Pitt 127) The costumes of the witches can perhaps demonstrate their status within their own social circle of the supernaturals, although in the 16th to17th Century, witches generally had ‘no special characters’ that were readily ‘apparent to observers’. (Pitt 123) The Weird Sisters in ‘Macbeth’, through their costuming, are seen as inferior and subordinate  to their leader Hecate. (Kiefer 104) Hecate, instead of appearing ‘grim’ or ‘portentous’, is dressed as ‘fairy-like’, ‘ethereal’, and ‘palely beautiful Greek goddess’. (Kiefer 105) The texture of Hecate’s costume’s materials is silk, which is used as higher-class members of society in Shakespearean theatre. (Lublin 47) There is a strong contrast between the ‘withered ugliness’ of the Weird Sisters and Hecate, partly suggesting that Hecate is represented as the socially superior leader of the witches, similar to the play text ‘Macbeth’’s description of this character. (Kiefer 106)

The identity of the three Weird Sisters, through their costuming, ’remain mysterious’ as the playwright hinted at the ‘powerful forces impinging on Macbeth.’ (Pitt 127) However, a range of  sources indicate that in terms of factors including gender, age, and social status, the identity of the Weird Sisters in Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ correspond to the identities of the stereotyped witches in Shakespearean England through its costuming elements to a large extent.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Art in the Picture.com. Macbeth Consulting the Vision of the Armed Head. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. <http://www.artinthepicture.com/paintings/Henry_Fuseli/Macbeth-consulting-the-Vision-of-the-Armed-Head/>

"Britannica School." Britannica School. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://school.ebonline.com/levels/high/article/108515>.

"Britannica School." Britannica School. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://school.ebonline.com/levels/high/article/68>. 

"Britannica School." Britannica School. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://school.ebonline.com/levels/high/article/68/media?assemblyId=101277>.

Findlay, Alison. Gendering the Stage. Blackwell, 2002. Print.

Fisher, Will. Materializing Gender in Early Modern English Literature and Culture. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. Print.

Kelly, Francis Michael. Shakespearean Costume for Stage and Screen. London: A & C Black. 1970. Print.

Kiefer, Frederick. Shakespeare's visual theatre: staging the personified characters. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.

Lublin, Robert. Costuming the Shakespearean Stage: Visual Codes of Representation in Early Modern Theatre and Culture. Ashgate, England, 2011. Print.

Pitt, Angela. Shakespeare's women. Newton Abbot. Devon: David & Charles, 1981. Print.

Shakespeare, William, and David M. Bevington. Four tragedies. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1988. Print.

Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997. Print.