This is a very thoughtful question. The witches do tell a
few stories about what they are up to outside the events surrounding Macbeth here at the
opening of Act I, scene iii. The main reason that they tell these stories is to advance
the audience's understanding of them as characters, not to advance the plot of the
play. It is a bit of a side-note to the action, but Shakespeare is giving key insight
into why the Witches do what they do here in this
conversation.
Shakespeare lived during a time when witches
were really feared. The witch hunts that we know about from our own history were also
ongoing in England, and people generally believed that witches were out stalking people
to do them evil.
In this scene, Shakespeare is showing just
this sort of evil-doing, spell casting, witch. Witch Two has been "killing swine,"
presumably to use in some incantation, brew or spell. Witch One has visited a woman
who, when asked by the witch to give her some of her nuts, refused. Because of this,
Witch One says that she will exact her revenge on the woman by plaguing her husband
while he is at sea. She shows her charm, with which she will work her magic, the thumb
of a sea pilot.
Shakespeare uses this scene to convince the
audience of the dangerous vengeful nature of the Witches, but he is also a great
business man of entertainment. Just as some people love to go to movies for the blood
and gore, people went to the theatre expecting these sorts of gruesome moments. This
scene is an opportunity to give his audience their money's worth, along with creating a
useful picture of just what the Witches are up to. So, along with their conversation,
he has one of the Witches pull out a human thumb to up the gross-out
factor.
But no, in a word, this conversation is not meant
to advance the plot of the play.
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