Macbeth is a play about subterfuge and trickery. Macbeth, his wife, and the three Weird Sisters are linked in their mutual refusal to come right out and say things directly. Instead, they rely on implications, riddles, and ambiguity to evade the truth. Macbethâs ability to manipulate his language and his public image in order to hide his foul crimes makes him a very modern-seeming politician. However, his inability to see past the witchesâ equivocationsâeven as he utilizes the practice himselfâultimately leads to his downfall.
Macbeth is a play about subterfuge and trickery. Macbeth, his wife, and the three Weird Sisters are linked in their mutual refusal to come right out and say things directly. Instead, they rely on implications, riddles, and ambiguity to evade the truth. Macbethâs ability to manipulate his language and his public image in order to hide his foul crimes makes him a very modern-seeming politician. However, his inability to see past the witchesâ equivocationsâeven as he utilizes the practice himselfâultimately leads to his downfall.
Macbeth ignores several signs that might have alerted him to the witchesâ deceptive capabilities. Banquo warns Macbeth to be wary of their predictions, since evil creatures will sometimes win peopleâs confidence with âhonest triflesââsmall truthsâonly to betray them more deeply in the future. Indeed, the witches promise Macbeth fame and honor while withholding important information about the consequences that will follow. If Macbeth had been listening closely to the witchesâ language, he might have picked up on the their potential for trickery himself. The three Weird Sisters greet Banquo with a series of riddling titles, hailing him as âLesser than Macbeth, and greaterâ and âNot so happy, yet much happier.â The phrases sound like nonsense, but in reality both assertions in each statement are true. Banquo will have a lesser title than Macbeth, but is the greater (i.e., more moral) man. He will not be as fortunate as Macbeth in the short term, as he will soon be assassinated, but will ultimately be much more fortunate because he wonât be made to suffer the everlasting torments of hell. At no point do the witches lie to Macbethâhe simply hears what he wants to hear and ignores the rest.
It is ironic that Macbeth falls for the witchesâ equivocations, because Macbeth and his wife are master equivocators themselves. Duncan laments that thereâs no method with which one may find âthe mindâs construction in the face,â meaning that it is impossible to know what a person is truly thinking just from his or her outward appearance. Lady Macbeth mimics this language when she directs her husband to look like an âinnocent flowerâ in order to hide the âserpentâ that truly lurks in his heart. The Macbeths know how to use imagery and appearance to conceal the truth, and sometimes they even use those skills on themselves. Macbeth asks the stars to extinguish their light so that his âeyeâ cannot see what his âhandâ does. Similarly, Lady Macbeth asks the night to grow as dark as the âsmoke of hellâ so that her knife cannot see itself slash its victim. The Macbeths know that their acts are wicked, so they try to hide the knowledge of their deeds from their own consciousness. In a sense, they wish to equivocate to themselves.
Just before Macduff kills him, Macbeth swears that he will never again believe those âjuggling fiendsâ that manipulate words and speak âin a double sense.â However, itâs possible that the three Weird Sisters are not âfiends,â or demons, at all, but rather agents of morality who bring Macbeth to justice by trapping him with his own tricks. The drunken porter, imagining himself the keeper of hellâs gates, pretends to admit âan equivocator that could swear in both the scales against either scale, who committed treason enough for Godâs sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven.â One can imagine Macbeth receiving a similar welcome from the true porter of hellâs gates.
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