Macbeth 1.1 What the Critics Say

The video explores different perspectives on Shakespeare's portrayal of witches in Macbeth. Samuel Johnson, an Enlightenment figure, believed that if Macbeth were written in his time, Shakespeare would have been dismissed for promoting superstition. In contrast, Romantic critics like Coleridge and Hazlitt appreciated the witches for their emotional and imaginative impact. AC Bradley, a 20th-century scholar, argued that Shakespeare's witches were not supernatural but rather depicted as real women accused of witchcraft.

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