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 the witches and receives his predictions and he sticks to them word for word and will do anything to make them come true. Finally, in the end when Macbeth is about to be attacked and killed is the most prominent example of “Fair is foul and Foul is fair” because Macbeth is finally killed and the rightful heir to the throne finally taking over the position that he was suppose to be holding.
As the play opens we are placed into 11 th century Scotland, during a war that Macbeth is fighting in. During the war Macbeth was the best of the best, he ended up killing the leader of the rebels, Macdonwald, by “Un seaming him from the nave to th’ chops.” Because Macbeth won the war the king of Scotland decided to award him with the land of Macdonwald, announcing Macbeth as the Thane of Cawdor. This is a good example of the overriding theme of “Fair is foul and foul is fair,” because Macbeth is getting a reward for doing something wrong. He did kill to defend the king but he still did kill.
The Term Paper on Macbeth Play Duncan Wife
In Shakespeare's Macbeth, one of the reoccurring themes throughout the play was "Fair is foul and foul is fair." This is used to explain that people and events ... king. The witches did not put a spell on Macbeth to make him kill, they just stimulated his emotions and raised a ... head, she had to heal herself. Then, shortly after, Lady Macbeth killed herself. It is obvious that the murder of Duncan was ...
It might have been socially acceptable to kill during a war but receiving land because you killed the most people and ended up killing Macdonwald is not necessarily right. But the theme says that “Fair is foul and foul is fair,” and this takes the role because when Macbeth kills it is fair to him in the king because he did it out of defense. But when he receives his reward of the land it is showing that killing Macdonwald will reward him with taking possession of his land. After receiving his newly acquired land Macbeth visits some witches and receives some predictions about his life. The next good example of the overriding theme is when Macbeth is visiting the witches. They tell him their predictions for him, which are that he will be King, Thane of Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor.
Macbeth has the overriding theme applied when he takes the predictions that the witches gave him and then he will do anything to make them come true. To begin making the witches predictions right Macbeth starts out as Thane of Glamis. Next he kills Macdonwald in a battle and receives his land becoming Thane of Cawdor, which he does not know is his yet. Lastly he has the king come over for a say with him to celebrate the winning of the war and then he plans to take the throne. While the king is sleeping Macbeth sneaks up on the king and stabs him to death, all while the guards are passed out sense Lady Macbeth drugged them. The way the theme is incorporated in this event is that by Macbeth following the predictions word for word he does what he thinks is fair but it is all really foul, and then when he does something foul he ends up getting killed in the end of the book because it is only fair that he pays for his foul doings.
At the end of the story Macbeth is in his castle waiting for the attack to happen that he so naively believed wouldn’t happen. When he was told by the witches that “No man of woman born will hurt Macbeth,” and that he isn’t in danger until the woods march up the hill and attack. Macbeth dawns his armor and begins to get ready for the fight that is unavoidably going to occur. Just by Macbeth’s actions and his attitude as the reader it is obvious that he is overconfident that he will not be hurt because the witches told him that “No man of woman born will hurt Macbeth” and he thinks the whole army of men was born the regular way of woman. Little does he know that Macduff’s mother died before he was born so he is not technically man of woman born. Because of his overconfidence he is left to think that there is nothing that will harm him and then when he finds out about Macduff, then he starts to realize by listening to someone else tell you something and shaping your life around it you will learn a hard lesson.
The Essay on Macbeth Fair Is Foul
Clinton Sands World Literature Macbeth Discuss the theme of equivocation and "fair is foul and foul is fair" in the play? Shakespeare uses equivocation not to confuse but to either get across multiple meanings or to leave dialogue and events in the play open ended. Equivocation can be seen with the witches and whenever they talk. The witches are themselves a vague set of characters who talk in a ...
But that one lesson that you might learn will probably keep you from committing it again or in Macbeth’s case it would end his life. This is fair because of all the foul things that Macbeth did and it would now come to an end. It is fair because now Macbeth wont be able to impose anymore of his sick mind twisting that he has done for so long and the country will be able to regain it’s old status when the rightful heir takes the throne again. It is foul because killing is not the proper thing to do and it isn’t something that should happen very often but it is fair because under Macbeth’s rule the country was falling apart and people were getting murdered all the time just so Macbeth could hold his social status that he had to kill to get.
In the play “Macbeth” by Shakespeare the main theme that is imposed is that of “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” This is demonstrated not just limited to the three examples listed above but there are examples throughout the whole book and the three that are listed are examples from the beginning, middle, and end. Each of the points illustrates how the situation is fair but foul and foul but fair. Another variation that applies to the points in the essay is “Things are not always what they seem to be.”.
