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Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help
The line "fair is foul and foul is fair" is repeated twice in the play.
The witches say it first in the first scene foreshadowing the
outcome of the play and Macbeth repeats it later on in the first act
when he is talking with banquo before they approach the witches.
i think the line kind of sums up all the contradiction in the play.
how macbeth debates with himself over the news of the witches.
whether it is good fortune that they bring or not. other contradictions
result from his decision to kill duncan. he goes back and forth in
his mind debating the murder. The quote also displays the
relationship of the beginning of the play to the end. the captain in the
first act tells of macbeth's great deeds in slaying macdonwald.
how brave he was and that he did not give up. in the end when he
faces macduff at first he is ready to give up and doesnt want to fight
him but when he does he is killed. sleep is another theme the
contradiction runs through. because of their guilty conscience
macbeth and his lady cannot sleep although they want to. macbeth
hears voices at night calling out that he has murdered sleep (after
he kills duncan) and that anyone who sleeps is putting themselves at risk.
at first to everyone macbeth appears the hero but in learning of his
deeds they go back on their loyalty to him. in act four with the
witches warnings to macbeth he interprets them wrong which costs
him his life. the first says beware of macduff, but macbeth takes the
second two to be a contradiction to the first and pays it no heed.
the apparition is of macduff as a bloody child. it says that no one born
of a woman would harm macbeth. the third a child wearing a crown
holding a tree says that no one will harm macbeth until the woods
of barnum are moved to dunsinane. macbeth takes these warnings as
they will produce a fair turn out for him but in fact that outcome
turns foul when macbeth learns the truth. macduff does indeed kill
macbeth after he tells him he is not of a woman because he born
by a caesarean rather than naturally.(see act 5 scene 8) macbeth
then learns that he has been misled the whole time and misinterpretted
all the predictions the witches gave him. i'm not sure if all of this is
too surface or not but i hope it can help you somehow. good luck! : )
Posted by lm on April 11, 1997 at 14:22:43
In Reply to "Macbeth: Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair" posted by Anne on April 10, 1997 at 14:44:05
Replies | Post Reply | Shakespeare Queries From Genuinely Interested Students 4.2.97: Top | Help