From one point of view, one may say that he simply means that he is loyal to the king as long as the king is a proper, rightful king and not one who has cheated to get there. This response has a sort of double understanding to it as well. In Banquo’s response, he states that he is willing to support Macbeth as long as his “bosom franchised and allegiance clear” (2.2.38). As both men were present at the time of the witches’ prophecies, Macbeth knows that he must understand the position that Banquo has on the matter. He tells Banquo that “If you shall cleave to my consent, when t’is, It shall make honor for you” (2.1.34-35). This is an example of an instance where Macbeth uses a technique called equivocation, in which he tells the truth yet either lies or means something else within the same sentence. Macbeth is a smart man and knows that he cannot directly ask Banquo if he wants to help in the killing of Duncan. Banquo is Macbeth’s best friend and if possible, he would like for the two of them to share the glory Macbeth gets after he kills Duncan. In this, he wishes that he may deceive others and allow them to see Duncan’s “Valiant cousin” (1.2.26) and not the “Black Macbeth” (4.3.63) that he is destined to become.Įven though Macbeth himself is prepared for what he plans on executing, there is one more loose-end he wishes to tie up. As the play progresses to the murder of Duncan, which becomes certain as Macbeth makes his tragic choice after which he hopes “false face must hide what the false heart doth know” (1.7.95-96). He is sent down the self-destructive path that the play revolves around, based upon his false belief in the witches and his own motivation. Macbeth has no reason to believe what the witches have said, yet because they appeal to his ambition and seemed to coincide with what he wanted, he accepts them as a true statement. This leads the audience to understand that Macbeth believes that the witches are agents of fate and not, as Banquo calls them “instruments of darkness” (1.3.136).Īs Macbeth’s train of thought progresses, especially as “Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland” (1.4.44) he firmly believes that there is now one path that he must follow, based on the so-called “honest trifles” (1.3.137) given to him by the witches. Throughout the play, Macbeth refers to the witches as the “Werd Sisters” (1.3.33). This shows that he already had thoughts of doing the deed but did not wish to act on them. After hearing of the witches’ Glamis, Cawdor, and King prophecies, Macbeth tells the audience in an aside, of the dreams that he has been having in which he kills the king to gain control of the throne. For Macbeth, this is his ambition, and the witches are the veritable first “spur to prick … vaulting ambition” (1.7.25). In the traditional Shakespearean tragedy, the hero is often driven by his tragic flaw, which may seem good at first, but will eventually lead to their downfall. Yet, because of the theme that Shakespeare inserts into the play, Macbeth believes that these women “Cannot be ill” (1.3.144). Their appearances along with their actions, such as causing a woman’s pilot husband to “sleep … neither night nor day” (1.3.20) for an incredible eighty-one weeks all because this lady would not share her chestnuts, point to the idea that these women “cannot be good” (1.3.144). The witches’ initial appearance sets the mood for the entire play and their prophecies contribute to the chain of events that eventually leads to the rise and fall of Macbeth.Īs Macbeth and Banquo come up to the witches, they cannot help but notice that they are ugly and disfigured to a point where Macbeth asks, “Live you? … You should be women and yet your beards forbid to interpret that you are so” (1.3.43-49). The introduction of this theme so early indicates that it will be a recurring topic throughout the play. The dominant theme of fair and foul is first introduced in the opening scene of the play as three witches chant, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair hover through the fog and filthy air” (1.1.12-13).
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