Fair is foul,
and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy
air.
The purpose of these
lines, spoken by the witches in unison, is to tell the audience that what seems good is
not, and what seems bad is not so either. These lines introduce one of the main themes
of the play –deception and the reversal of the expected moral order. Macbeth is deceived
by the witches into believing that it is his place to be
king
‘Thou
that shall be king
hereafter’
This prophecy goes
against what was believed to be the natural order of kingship as chosen by God. It is
noted that in the day of King Duncan’s death the sun does not appear to rise. It was
believed at the time that if the Divine Right of Kings was disrupted, there would be
consequences of great magnitude. It is therefore unsurprising that Macbeth’s accession
to the throne causes civil unrest and the deaths of
many.
Macbeth is also deceived into believing he is
invincible and that
‘none of woman born can harm
Macbeth’
The witches
prophesies are revealed to be true, but with costs, caveats and consequences. In seeking
their support, Macbeth has gone against the Christian faith and brings about his
downfall.
The purpose of Act 1 Scene 1 is to connect
Macbeth, out protagonist, with evil and foreboding from the start of the play. He does
not appear in the scene, but the witches talk of their meeting with him which is to
come. We can deduce from this that the path Macbeth embarks on is already laid out for
him by these dark forces: he has no real control over the events which affect him, and
the witches are confident that the choices he will make will draw him in to their evil
plot.
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