There are many motifs in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but one of the most important is the recurring disassociation of appearance and reality. The entire motif is introduced in the first scene when the witches say “Fair is foul and foul is fair” (1,i,12).
This is then reiterated as important when Macbeth says, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen. ” (1,iii, 39).
Drawing parallels and comparing two polar opposites, such as foul and fair, sets the stage for the dissimilarity between appearance and reality.
This motif changes as the characters change, however, and it moves from the main characters not knowing what to believe or trust, to the main characters using the variance to their own advantage and hiding their true motives, to finally causing the main characters to go insane. Throughout the entirety of Macbeth, what the characters have seen and what the readers know to be true have often times been contrasting. This divergence between appearance and reality grows and develops with the characters throughout the play. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is naive and content with his place in life.
This creates an inability for Macbeth to see that appearances are not always the gateway to reality. In Act 1, Macbeth comes across the witches and is immediately aware of the fact that all is not as it should be. He mentions the foul and fair day and then notices the odd appearances of the beings in front of him. Macbeth refuses to admit that their exteriors might not represent who they are and he brings this up by saying “You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” (1, iii, 47-49).
The Essay on Macbeth Character Sketch Foul And Foul Is Fair
The play "Macbeth" is considered to be one of Shakespeare's greatest plays of all time. The play uses setting and the plot to its biggest advantage. The main theme in the play is "Fair is foul and foul is fair." This theme is used from the first act to the end of the play. Three very prominent examples of the overriding theme is when Macbeth receives the land of Macdonwald. Next, when he visits ...
He refuses to see anything beyond what is right in front of him. He does acknowledge the disparity when he says that even though these women “look not like th’ inhabitants o’ th’ earth” (1,iii, 42) they are on it and so because he sees two differing ideas, he is allowing himself to understand that not everything is as it seems. This scene and Macbeth’s reactions to seeing these unreal witches show his inexperience with lies and deceit. This greenness shows Macbeth’s immaturity and it also shows just how far Macbeth changes in this play.
Later on, the main characters of Macbeth use the distinction between appearance and reality in order to hide their true intentions. This is spoken about by Duncan in relation to the betrayal by the previous Thane of Cawdor. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face” (1, iv, 13-14) This foreshadows Duncan’s inability to see the truth behind the facade. This allows Macbeth to play the role of gracious host and then murder his liege. Later on, Duncan’s own sons bring this up again while discussing their father’s demise.
Donalbain says that there are “daggers in men’s smiles” (2, iii, 165) which is a direct comparison to his father’s mentioning of people hiding their true motives behind their face, but at the same time it juxtaposes itself with the previous statement with the fact that Duncan showed his inadequacy whereas Donalbain shows his awareness. Macbeth uses the same type of comparison between the face and the truth as a justification for his own perfidy when he says, “False face must hide what the false heart doth know. ” (1, vii, 95-96).
This statement also juxtaposes itself with both statements made by Scotland’s royal family because Macbeth uses it to show that he himself is going to be placing a mask over his true intentions. This shows a difference between Macbeth at the beginning of the play and the Macbeth at the point of this quote. At the time of the quote Macbeth has not only accepted the fact that appearance and reality don’t always mesh, but he has lowered himself enough to use that divergence to his own advantage in order to introduce his duplicity.
The Essay on Macbeth Internal Conflicts Conflict Duncan Murdered
Everyday people deal with conflicts with their peers. In the play Macbeth there are both examples of external and internal conflicts. Three main conflicts were when Lady Macbeth pressured Macbeth into murdering Duncan, after Macbeth murdered Duncan and also after he murdered Banquo. An external conflict in the play was when Macbeth had decided he no longer wished to murder Duncan as seen in Act I ...
As well as Macbeth altering and shifting from the life stage of naivety to the stage of selfishness and egocentricity. The next stage of Macbeth’s life that is seen in this show is insanity. It is important to mention that these life stages do not happen chronologically as Macbeth’s insanity, or to be more polite, possible schizophrenia, occurs throughout the play. The first instance of Macbeth seeing things that are not congruent with reality is the dagger that points him to Duncan’s room.
Macbeth is perfectly aware that the dagger is not real which is made clear when he says, “art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain” (2, i, 49-51).
The hallucinations are a visible incarnation of the motif of appearance vs. reality. It does not stop with the daggers however, and as Macbeth continues to kill, his phantasms become ghastlier. After Macbeth kills his best friend, Banquo, he gets invited to sit with some people and turns them down saying that “the table’s full” (3, iv, 54) because he sees Banquo post-mortem with blood ripping down his face. These illusions, while embodying the variance between appearance and reality, also exemplify Macbeth’s need for something to justify his feelings. The discrepancy between appearance and reality in this play allows the viewers an inside look at how the characters advance from one stage of life to the next. The first stage is naivety and is shown by Macbeth’s unawareness of the way the world breaks the connection between external appearances and internal reality.
The nest stage was egoism where Macbeth did exactly as both Duncan and his son said and used the disparity between appearances and reality for his own benefit. The third non-chronological stage is insanity where the incongruence was used as a way for Macbeth to conjure up hallucinations that would validate his own emotions. Shakespeare uses this motif in order to shed some light on the reality of Macbeth that is hidden behind his appearance.
