The Power Of The Three Witches In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

In act 1, scene 1, the three witches speak of meeting with victorious Macbeth upon a hill after the battle has ended. This implies that the witches can see into the future. However, they also talk about causing harm to a sailor because his wife would not share her chestnuts with one of the witches; saying that "Though his bark cannot be lost/Yet it shall be tempest tossed". They plan on causing unrelenting storms while the sailor is at sea so that he will have to stay awake day and night to keep his ship afloat. The lack of sleep with eventually cause his death. This shows that the power(s) of the witches are limited because they can control things such as the weather, and see into the future, but cannot outright cause death upon a human