Equivocation in Macbeth

The witches manipulate Macbeth into becoming a murdering, power-hungry evil being, by telling him, “someday you’ll be king.” “I'll drain him dry as hay. Sleep shall neither night nor day Hang upon his penthouse lid. He shall live a man forbid. Weary sev'n nights, nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine.” (I,i) The witches use the two other prophecies to get in the mind of Macbeth. They say that Macbeth will be Thane of Cawdor, and Banquo will be the father of future generations of kings. Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.They give Macbeth a false sense of security with the visions they perceive. These influential women are the ones that instill the idea of murdering the king. Macbeth lets greed get the best of him. The witches sway Macbeth into killing Duncan for the throne. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” (I,i) The Witches intend to turn Macbeth from his good ways, into something evil. As the only character that understands their cruelty, the witches want Macbeth dead. The witches give Macbeth the temptation to kill the king by telling him their prophecies. In the end,

A deadly combination of ambition and guilt poisons both Macbeth and his wife and leads to their deaths in the end. Ruined by her desire for power, Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness is more vivid and guilt seems to affect her more than her husband, even though he is responsible for more crimes. Her request to the spirits to “unsex [her] here,/ And fill [her], from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty!” is contrasted as the more guilty she feels, the more weak and sensitive she become, a polar opposite of her usual masculine and bold self (1.5.44-46). As a result, she is unable to cope with the guilt and meets her ultimate demise by taking her life. This has an immediate effect on Macbeth: the almost always apparent tension of ambition and guilt disappears. He does not seem interested in living and is ready to face death in a manner more relatable to his former self rather than the murderer he has become. Moreover, Macbeth’s final remark is “Arm, arm, and out!”,

The three witches show that appearances can be deceiving by tricking Macbeth many times throughout the play. In the opening scene, the witches set the mood of the play by saying, “Fair is foul and foul is fair,” (1.1.12). This quote often applies to the witches themselves and their predictions. For example, the three prophecies told to Macbeth predict personal reward. Though Banquo questioned, “[W]hy do you start and seem to fear / Things that do sound so fair?”, Macbeth had good reason to fear the witches’ prophecies (1.3.49-50). Predictions originally thought to be good (ie. he would become king) eventually led to Macbeth’s downfall.

On the contrary, Lady Macbeth begins as a ruthless woman. She has a manipulative and controlling character, convincing Macbeth to kill King Duncan; she will do anything to gain power. When she says, “How tender ‘tis to love the babe…I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out” (I.vii. 55-58), she shows her ruthlessness and her “bad” ambition. In her “role reversal” with Macbeth, she gains somewhat of a conscience and realizes her guilt. When she tells him, “You must leave this” (III. ii. 35), she wants Macbeth to forget about his plan to murder Banquo’s family. She is very hesitant about committing another murder and does not want Macbeth to follow through with his plan.

Not all equivocations in Macbeth were meant to be malicious, This can be shown through when Ross equivocated Macduff. In this equivocation when asked about Macduff’s family Ross says that they are well, even though they were killed by Macbeth recently. Ross’s reasoning for this was that “they were well at peace when I did leave 'em."(4.3) meaning they had died and gone to heaven. One could even argue that the witches equivocations were righteous because they served as a comeuppance to the morally flawed Macbeth. But exploiting another's inner flaw to the harm of himself and others is hardly a just cause in my eyes. In fact the porter while presumably talking about Macbeth said that no one could equivocation their way to heaven. At the time

One of the most important themes in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare comes from one of the last lines in Act 1, Scene 1 of the play. The three witches speak this simple line ‘Fair is foul, and foul is fair,’ shortly before they disperse and it becomes a prophecy and an underlying warning for the rest of the play. The connotations of this one line becomes significant as the play unfolds beginning even with Macbeth’s opinions at the beginning of the story and lasting throughout the play with the constant recurring themes of deception, doing evil in the name of good,

Throughout the play, lady macbeth is shown as an evil, despicable and cunning woman; with great power unlike the woman of her time in the 17th century. her power is shown over macbeth and how she is able to design his decisions to fit perfectly with her blood thrust plan to kill the king of scotland in order to gain supreme power. At the beginning of the play lady macbeth is shown reading a letter from her husband. lady macbeth immediately understands what the letter is as it conveys her partners emotional turmoil.

This means that she is as involved in the murder as he is, but she is much more brace. Macbeth is also ambitious, but he would not have been brace enough to kill the king on his own, without her drive. Lady Macbeth is the cause of Macbeth losing his conscience, killing the king, and in the end she gets her way. In this scene, Lady Macbeth is shown as evil, and willing the do anything to achieve her goal.

When Lady Macbeth states, “thou wouldst be great;Art not without ambition, but without. The illness should attend it,” she is talking about Macbeth and how he is not ruthless enough to kill Duncan. Even when Macbeth has the “Golden Opportunity” and Duncan will be staying there, Macbeth does not have the strength or wickedness to kill

Lady Macbeth, being Macbeth’s husband, is one of the characters most integrally linked to the actions of Macbeth since she helps Macbeth decide on his own decisions when he himself is not capable. Lady Macbeth responds to one of Macbeth’s personal letters, stating “It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great,/Art not without ambition, but without/The illness should attend it.” Lady Macbeth says that Macbeth has great ambition, yet he struggles to apply it. The letter, in the sincere tone it is written, reveals Lady Macbeth’s eagerness to influence the actions of Macbeth to reach his desires.

Macbeth understands that the witches "have more in them than mortal knowledge," and his trust in the witches is made stronger because out of the three prophecies, "two truths are told" (I.V..3) If it hadn’t been for the prophecy that the witches gives to Banquo and Macbeth, Lady Macbeth would never persuade Macbeth into killing Duncan to become King; and Macbeth never would plot to kill Banquo as a result of jealousy because of Banquo’s prophecy, and mistrust of Banquo after Macbeth kills Duncan. Macbeth relies on the witches throughout the

"Fair is foul and foul is fair," The quote from the three witches, repeats throughout the play and is the basis of the many changes that occur between the characters. Macbeth's opening line reiterates this theme with, "So foul and fair a day I have not yet seen." He describes the day as foul because he had to kill so many men. But the day is fair because he feels triumphant and is rewarded.

Shakespeare uses Banquo to highlight the fact that Macbeth is “Rapt withal”, Macbeth is very gullible and takes things at face value and he begins to think of the witches’ statements as providence rather than prophecy. Shortly after, during his aside he state that he will leave it to chance but the seeds of ambition are already beginning to grow in his mind due to these prophecies. Also, the quote “to me you speak not” shows that Banquo, contrasting heavily from Macbeth, is rather unfazed by these prophecies. This also furthers their character’s differences, in the sense that Macbeth is more easily persuaded and not questioning anything, while Banquo is more down to earth and is taking the witches words

From this we understand that Macbeth is too kind and soft to kill Duncan unlike her who wished that she could be the man so she could do the deed. This shows that the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth is beginning to break down as she is forcing him into doing something that he

Authors intend on portraying their views on human insight the best way suitable for their story line. They have the choice of either stating their theme directly or indirectly. Some authors will try to hide their themes, but only a select few are effective with it. Shakespeare is the definition of a master as he displays his themes through his vague complicated ways. Shakespeare uses equivocation in attempt to develop multiple meanings for a set scenario. Throughout the play equivocations, double meanings, are displayed as they “camouflage evil” using the “language of Macbeth” (Irena Pg. 1). Shakespeare’s ambiguous style develops an opportunity for themes such as fate, human nature, betrayal, loyalty to be relevant.