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Sparknotes Commentary
(taken from http://www.sparknotes.com/shakespeare/macbeth/section6.html)
The witches, among the most memorable and powerful figures in the play, are also among its most enigmatic. Critics have devoted a great deal of discussion to their thematic significance, their moral import, and the nature of their participation in the story's action.
Are they simply independent agents playing mischievously and cruelly with human events? Or are the "weird sisters" agents of fate, simply betokening the inevitable? (The word "weird" descends etymologically from the Anglo-Saxon word "wyrd," meaning "fate" or "doom.") Are their prophecies merely constructed to wreak havoc in the minds of the hearers, and thereby become self-fulfilling? (It is doubtful that Macbeth would have killed Duncan if not for his meeting with the witches.) Or are their prophecies accurate readings of the future? (Birnam Wood, after all, comes to Dunsinane in the end with no help from the weird sisters; the soldiers bearing the branches have not heard of the prophecy.)
The truth is probably somewhere in between--the witches very likely can see the future, and just as likely play their cruel games with prophecies mixed with statements that, while originally lies, shall become self-fulfilling. But the sheer inscrutability of the witches is as important as any reading of their motivations and natures. The witches stand outside the limits of human comprehension; there is no explicit source of ambition or evil in the human mind, and the witches seem to stand in for the unconscious origin of sin--incomprehensible, perhaps even alien to us--and yet irresistible.
Contrast with the witches' presence in the first scene.
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