Like much of Shakespeare's Macbeth, the predictions and advice given to Macbeth by the apparitions in Act 4.1 are a mixture of opposites, as are Macbeth's reactions.
On the one hand, the First Apparition tells Macbeth to "Beware Macduff." But on the other hand, the second apparition tells Macbeth:
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The pow'r of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth. (Act 4.1.79-81)
And the Third Apparition gives Macbeth more reassurance:
Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.
Macbeth shall never vanquished be until
Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
Shall come against him. (Act 4.1.90-94)
Macbeth seems to react to the above by being reassured:
That will never be.
Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements [omens, prophecies], good. (Act 4.1.94-96)
Yet, seconds later when the witches vanish and Macbeth finds out that MacDuff has fled to England, he announces that he will order MacDuff's family killed.
These oppositions contribute to the themes of equivocation and opposition in the play. Since the witches first introduce the idea of fair and foul being interchanged, oppositions abound. And the witches equivocate here as they do elsewhere in the play.
Macbeth's reaction also reveals that he is at least smart enough to know better than to place complete confidence in the witches, though he would like to. Repeatedly as the play progresses, Macbeth will one moment seem to believe he is invincible, while the next moment seem to know the predictions are too good to be true.
No comments:
Post a Comment