The play Macbeth, was written around 1606 by the famous poet William Shakespeare. In the plot, Macbeth is told prophecies by three witches and he does everything in his power to make sure he becomes the king, as they proclaimed, including murder. In Macbeth, one theme presented is “fair is foul, and foul is fair,” meaning that things appearing to be good are sometimes bad, and things that at first seem bad can actually be good. There are many examples in the play to support this with regard to the supernatural, nature, and the play’s characters.
To begin, this quote is relevant to the supernatural in the play, one application being to the people who said this chant first: the three witches. For example, the these three hags are constantly described as being ugly and weird. Banquo judges their appearance when he says, “What are these / So withered, and so wild in their attire, / That look not like th’ inhabitants o’th’ earth, / And yet are on ‘t? ” (1. 3. 39-42). Both Macbeth and Banquo learn valuable information from these ugly witches, as Macbeth is told he will become Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King and Banquo discovers his descendants will be Kings afterward.
These supernatural hags are vile on the outside, but full of secrets and knowledge on the inside. Additionally, in 4. 3, the witches reveal to Macbeth three apparitions that each tell him something about his future. All of these strange objects that are seen give Macbeth a piece of information that he perceives as good news but in reality, is misinterpreted and leads to Macbeth’s downfall. One apparition tells Macbeth “The pow’r of man, for none born of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth. ” Macbeth assumes that this is a good sign because he believes no man cannot be born from a woman.
Later he learns that Macduff was cut from his mother’s stomach and Macduff then kills him; therefore representing the foul part of the “good” apparition. Next, the witches quote in the first scene can also apply to nature in the sense that even the days events and weather patterns are representative of a good or bad occurrence. For instance, when the witches are seen by Banquo and Macbeth they come on a day that Macbeth describes beforehand as, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (1. 3. 38).
The day was good because of their victory in war, but bad as they had to commit so many killings. Moreover, another apparition told Macbeth that he would only be vanquished when the forest is on top of his castle. Macbeth again misunderstands the apparition and believes it to be a good sign, as forests cannot be uprooted and moved. This idea, however, backfires on Macbeth when Malcolm and Macduff’s men come up to Macbeth’s castle disguised with branches from the forest. The natural aspect of the play also followed this theme.
Finally, the theme in Macbeth also relates to multiple characters, two of them being Lady Macbeth and King Duncan. For starters, in 1. 5 Lady Macbeth reads a letter from Macbeth describing the encounter with the witches and commented, “Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it” (20-21). Later, once King Duncan and Banquo, among others, have died, Lady Macbeth cannot take the guilt anymore and commits suicide. It is clear that Lady Macbeth pretends to be ruthless and willing to do anything to help her husband gain power, but is actually the opposite and full of guilt.
Furthermore, King Duncan was not an example of being both foul and fair himself, but deceived by someone who was. He believed that the Thane of Cawdor was a loyal man, but in fact turned out to be a traitor against Scotland and aided the King of Norway in 1. 2. King Duncan then goes on to give his title to Macbeth, stating, “No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive” (52). Duncan was tricked into believing that the Thane of Cawdor was a good man, when he was in fact, a renegade. In conclusion, the play, Macbeth, was written with a main idea in mind that is included in 1. , when three witches chant “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (10).
The basic meaning of this quote is that all things are not exactly as they seem, as appearances are often deceiving. This applies to the supernatural, nature, and characters that are in William Shakespeare’s play. The quote said by the witches is very similar to the famous expression “you can’t judge a book by its cover. ” It is possible that this was used after Shakespeare’s play was written before this proverb became popular.
