Deception is defined as “the act of tricking someone by telling them something that is not true”. In the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, deception is always present and things are not always what they appear to be. In this great work of literature, the three witches; the Thane of Cawdor; and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are the very embodiments of trickery and show us the true effects deception can have on man. From the first scene of the play, the reader immediately gets a glimpse of the deception meshed into Macbeth’s world. The quote “Fair is foul and foul is fair” is a commonly used by the three witches, spoken in their equivocal language. This same language of vagueness is used when the witches encounter Macbeth and Banquo on the …show more content…
The depiction of timeless issues such as these is what makes the storyline of the play compelling to me. Also, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both strong conveyors of deceit. From the onset on the play, Macbeth is characterized as strong and loyal to his king and country. However, once the witches’ prophecy is planted in his head, his thirst for King is so intense that it cannot be quenched and slowly his admirable traits are erased. When Macbeth is preparing for the King’s arrival at his house, he starts to question his murderous thoughts. He states that the King will be here in “double trust” , for Macbeth will be his hostess and will also be acting as a subject of the state. How can he possibly do such a grim task? The answer is Lady Macbeth. She lusts after becoming Queen and living a life of fantasy and does everything in her power to persuade her husband to kill the King. She questions his courage, she feeds his ego and she emasculates poor Macbeth all in an effort to get what she wants disguised as what is best for him. When he agrees, she tells him to “look like th’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t” in order to commit this regicide. Lady Macbeth, such a beautiful woman, is actually a cunning, strategic and determined lady – so determined that she’s willing to risk everything and make her husband lie to the king and betray him. It’s funny how things are not always what they appear to be. In conclusion, the
“Betray a friend, and you’ll often find you ruined yourself,” once said Aesop. There are consequences of betraying and deceiving a friend, and it will change one’s life for the worse. One author who emphasizes the ideal of betrayal and deception is Shakespeare, and it can be seen throughout the play Macbeth. In the play, Macbeth was an honored and respected high ranking noble in King Duncan’s eyes, and betrayed his king to gain power. Macbeth and his fellow, Banquo were told by mysterious witches that Macbeth would be crowned king. The prediction from the witches gave Macbeth and Lady Macbeth a dangerous dose of ambition, which led to them killing the ones closest to them to become king, including King Duncan and Banquo. Throughout Macbeth, Shakespeare illustrates the concept
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, a selfish Scottish thane becomes over-ambitious and commits several murders in order to gain and stay in power. After the murders, Macbeth evades suspicion by hiding his guilt and intentions, therefore deceiving others into thinking that he is innocent. Other characters including Lady Macbeth, the witches and the Scottish thanes also use their appearances to hide the truth and deceive others. With these examples, Shakespeare shows that appearances can be deceiving.
In play Macbeth Act I, William Shakespeare write “Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair” (I,i ,12) to show what protagonist Macbeth thinks is fair may be foul and what he thinks foul may be fair in order to convey the dramatic irony and the paradox relationship in the play. First, when Macbeth greets three witches they prophesizes that Macbeth will be the Thane of Cawdor as well as the King, and Macbeth is fearing about it. As the play states, “Good sir, why you start and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair” (I, iii, 54-55). As Banquo said, be the king is fair, but in order to be the king, Macbeth need to plan a series of murder which is a lot of foul events. The paradox
In the tragedy of Macbeth there are times when there is deception used especially within acts 1 and 2. What deception is explained is “It seems as though no one is who they seems they are and everyone is suspected of having hidden ulterior motives” (Kibin). The first time that there is deception in act 1 scene 4 of Macbeth when King Duncan names Macbeth Thane of Cawdor after the killing of the previous traitor. The act of deception is in act 1 scene 5 and it is when Lady Macbeth reads Macbeth’s letter and decides that Macbeth will be king because the witches said so. . The last part that we see deception is in act 1 scene 7 between Lady Macbeth and Macbeth when they plan and execute the killing of King Duncan. There is so many times that we see deception in the first acts and because
All humans are capable of good and evil. Whether or not they choose to succumb to their own dark side is a choice they must make, and the fight to resist temptation is a battle they fight every day. In the Shakespearean tragedy “Macbeth”, the audience witnesses the protagonist Macbeth’s slow loss of humanity. He goes from a loyal, trustworthy, war hero to a ruthless, machiavellian ruler set on doing absolutely anything to gain more and more power, and doing all he can to desperately protect it. It is this lust for power that leads to his eventual downfall. This pattern of deception and betrayal is still evident in the world today, such as Aaron Hernandez’s murder and assault charges, Teresa Giudice’s bankruptcy fraud, and Rep. Michael G. Grimm's
It was a gloomy, cold Monday morning when Lady Macbeth was called into the conference room. Feeling the confusion in the room, she took a seat at the corner of the table. Everyone was speaking to one another, trying to understand why they all had been called for a meeting so unexpectedly, leaving Lady Macbeth to sit unaccompanied, the way she enjoyed it. A short man soon came into the room, catching the attention of all the workers, clearly showing the man’s authority. As the workers scrambled to find a seat, the man began to announce,” Attention fellow employees, in the next week I will be giving a promotion. However, the competition is very tight. You must show me that you excel in your craft and that you deserve this
Throughout his tragedy, Macbeth, Shakespeare employs examples of false appearances and duality to characterize Lady Macbeth as a manipulative, deceptive woman. Not only does Lady Macbeth’s own speech characterize her as such, but even the three witches give the statement, “fair is foul and foul is fair,” (act I. scene i. line 11), establishing the motif of false appearances before the audience first meets her. Lady Macbeth does not seem evil from the outside, but she is insidious on the inside. Her manipulative nature shines through when she tells Macbeth he should, “look like the innocent flower,/ but be the serpent under it,” (act I. scene v. lines 71-72). Her deceptive persona in this scene mimics the story of Adam and Eve. She is attempting
At the beginning of the play Macbeth is shown as an honorable man who is always loyal to his king. This is in contrast with Lady Macbeth who shown from the very beginning that she always had a lust for blood and murder. As time passes by he begins to be manipulated by both the witches and Lady Macbeth. He is shown saying, “For them, the gracious Duncan have I murder’d” (3.1.67) making it clear that in his eyes he only murdered Duncan for the sake of the witches. In his eyes he was only doing these things for others rather than himself. Also Lady Macbeth uses methods of tying to his pride and insecurities. She begins to build him up whilst bringing him down using mind games against him. Lady Macbeth on the other hand was not even able to commit the act herself as she proclaims, “Had he not resembled/My father as he slept, I had done’t” (2.2.12-13). Because of the resemblance Duncan holds of her father she did not want to commit to the deed so she just did the manipulation behind the whole scheme. Her not even being able to kill Duncan herself shows her cowardice and that she would rather be making her husband do all the heavy lifting. Not only that her tactics of manipulating her husband by using their so called love shows the true evil she shows within her. She uses their love as if it was tool as to get her husband to do things for her questioning whether she really does love her husband or just sees him as a device. Although neither character should be sympathised, Macbeth shows the biggest transition thus the most tragic
William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, opens not with Macbeth, the leading character, but instead, the witches. They eerily speak the lines: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair/ Hover through the fog and filthy air” (1.1.12-3). Introducing the play like this importantly sets an ambiguous tone, distinctively blurring the lines between “fair” and “foul.” Accordingly, as “[There is] no art to find the mind’s construction in the face” (1.4.10-1), Macbeth accepts what the witches tell him as fact, after his promotion to Thane of Cawdor affirms their prophetic greeting. This lack of objectivity leads a good character astray. Though Macbeth initially shows loyalty to his country, he too readily accepts what the witches tell him at face value, and walks
The verse “fair is foul and foul is fair”, written in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, is a paradox that details the theme of the play. It is said by the witches at the beginning of the play and repeated various times throughout. This contradictory line foreshadows the events to come in the play. In relation to Macbeth, it can be interpreted to relate to multiple situations occurring in the play. The line “fair is foul and foul is fair” is interpreted to mean that innocence is capable of turning into guilt, things aren’t always as they seem, and no one be trusted.
The Tragedy of Macbeth opens in a desert place with thunder and lightning and three Witches who are anticipating their meeting with Macbeth, "There to meet with Macbeth." They all say together the mysterious and contradictory "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." King Duncan learns that "brave
Is he telling the truth? The answer could lie in his eyes. Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragic play filled with deceit and deception. However, an understanding of body language, speech patterns, and even reactionary emotions would have revealed the title character’s true malice. The traditional proverb, the eyes are the window to the soul, is correct in its assertion that dishonesty can be detected through speech and the physical movements of the body.
Whatever way you decide to look at it, if you try to act as someone you’re not, the truth would eventually appear in the end. That is what happened in William Shakespeare’s play, “Macbeth”. Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Banquo each put on their own “masks” of deception and deceit. As time passes, the realities of their true personalities began to emerge.
Several prominent characters in the play make use of equivocations to hide their treacherous intentions and some even come to recognize the danger of equivocal language. The three witches, the porter and Macbeth are the most significant characters who take part in acts of subterfuge. However, despite his own usage of double speak, Macbeth becomes a victim to the speech manipulation of the Weird Sisters and regrettably fails to see the hidden deception in the witches’ words. The most famous paradoxical line of the witches: “Fair is foul and foul is fair” (1.1.11) visits the tragedy in various forms and embodies the very essence of the play. It warns the audience that all events, things and
There are three witches that are straight from hell that start this play. They are super evil and known for decieving people into believing one thing and then doing another in the same frame of mind. They twist things into wicked things and they get away with it because people continue to go to them for help. When they make the three profecies on Macbeth and Banquo the two knights don’t know what to do or say because they were not supposed to be there and if they were to get caught bad things would certainly happen. The fact that the first two things that the witches said would happen actually happened raised some questions for Macbeth and Banquo. The witches knew what was going to happen before they said “Foul is Fair and Fair is Foul” and they basically just tried