“Fair is foul and foul is fair”. Show how this image recurs and develops through the play.

Shakespeare develops the character of Macbeth as a study of the supernatural when

what seems like a worthless guess by three old hags, "This supernatural soliciting", turns out,

not only to be true, but doubtfully veracious in Macbeth's mind from the very off, when even

he does not know whether it is fair or foul, "cannot be good, cannot be ill", in his

oxymoronic evaluation of the words of the witches beforehand, creating dramatic Irony.

Banquo is the contrast of this with his steadfast righteousness, "to betray's in deepest

consequence.", but the evil predictions turn out to be true in Shakespeare's idealistic plot,

(to follow James I's views in his book, demonology) as the demons drive him to the highs of

monarchy and all the way back down again.

The soliloquies of Macbeth provide us with excellent insight into this well developed

theme. He openly admits he himself is performing his own fair/foul deeds, "He's here in

double trust", as what seems to be a feast for Kind Duncan, turns out to be his own murder

as Macbeth describes the apocalyptic imagery, "tears shall drown the wind", which he sees

in the future, after his equivocal change from polysyllabic to monosyllabic words,

"Commends the ingredience", "naked new-born babe", where Shakespeare cannot decide

whether to be literally superb or to concentrate on his plot and echoes. This is developed

again by the 'poet' in the next act when it moves on from the simple, deceiving act of

treachery, to disguise of evil, covering up true nature, "Nature seems dead", where the

malevolence is personified and "Tarquin's ravishing strides" bury the seemingly irrepressible

mother nature into the ground, as the audience are whiteness to the scene as a dilemma

when Macbeth turns into the depraved, perfidious side of him.

Macbeth is so rapt at the apparitions scene that he continues to use his poetic licence to

great effect as, even when he is shocked, he continues to rearrange the two opposites while

using alliteration to its fullest, "blood-boltered Banquo". He continues in the exact same state

of mind in the following pages, as Shakespeare develops Macbeth as an assertive, yet easily

persuaded character, when the minor Lennox receives the same attention as the rest - none

- "The castle of Macduff I will surprise", as he ponders on how to kill the feared Macduff:

Ironic because he holds the opinion that Macduff is foul, although he is fair and he believes

the witches speak fairly, but their intentions are very foul.

Much like in IV.1, Macbeth performs a soliloquy in his distressed state of mind while

Seyton is present, in V.1. The theme is much more developed here where the philosophical

Shakespeare tells his now entranced audience that "Life's but a walking shadow", displaying

Macbeth's depression, followed by his metaphorical, negative description, "Struts and frets",

of a thing that is thought of as virtuous by the majority of people. This comes after the so-

called 'bad news' of his wife's death, but he seems to think that a foul thing like that seems

quite fair, "She should have died hereafter", even though he appears as the other,

sympathetic half of himself, "find her disease", before again changing disposition, "Would

scour these English hence", where he self-centred like concentrates on his own, fragile

destiny, as Shakespeare plays around and jumbles the character of Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth is an excellent example of the fair/foul theme. She is a lady and is thought

to be a kind, loving and lady-like, but her dramatic, alliterative entrance in I.5, "And take my

milk for gall, you murdering ministers", is the real Lady Macbeth, while the play write shows

superbly how she is seeming to be fair in front of guests, "Look to the lady", but in fact she

is the real villain of the play, tormenting the audience and every-one's innocent ignorance of

women. The theme is somewhat reversed towards the end of the script because

Shakespeare - with his depraved repetition, "To bed, to bed, to bed" - has not made Lady

Macbeth such an enemy to his enthralled audience, that they can't really feel sorry a little for

her illness, "This disease is beyond my practice", as she becomes more fair in the juggled

end of the play.

The wife of Macbeth also appears un-hurting, senseless and cruel, before we see the start

of her more fair side in II.2, "Had he not resembled... I had done't", as the writer teases the

audience with his confusing, twisting plot and monosyllabic dialogues. She repeats a more

feeble side of herself in a more complex way as the play develops, "dwell in doubtful joy",

and she becomes a weaker character. Her contributions to the fair foul/foul theme change as

she slowly becomes less of a villain, but her grip on her husband gets much weaker, "Be

innocent of the knowledge dearest chuck", as he becomes more of the evil one, whilst

continuing to use oxymoronic personification, "Light thickens", because before, he was

looking to be just deception intended by the witches, "In their newest gloss", where the lady

attacks Macbeth's masculinity, "then you were a man", but in the second and third murders,

a brave man being brought down by the witches.

Lady Macbeth is also a great believer in the theme as a disguise for the couple's actions,

"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't", as the great, evil mind of the

lady, developed very early on in the play, plots to kill the king. She and him both exhibit their

earlier intentions after the murder, "outrun the pauser reason", and "What, in our house",

when suitably the predictions by the witches to be literal and an excuse to gain power, but

the bad acting would show off Shakespeare's talent of producing dramatic irony, frustration

and repetition to show women as being insignificant, "O Banquo, Banquo! Our royal

master's murdered", which he does throughout the play.

In the murder of Duncan, Lady Macbeth has an important role, as her argumentative side

is apparent. This is so because she is taking the predictions by the witches to be literal and

an excuse to gain power, but the well educated Macbeth sees the foul deception by the

witches, "In their newest gloss", where the lady attacks Macbeth's masculinity, "then you

were a man", but in the second and third murders the she has no involvement. He dismisses

her with his over stunning oxymoron, "restless ecstasy", and alliterative metaphors, "life's

fitful fever", so Shakespeare can show off to James I.

The hallucinations of particularly Macbeth display the appearance versus reality theme

because the objects appear, but are not reality. The dagger, well portrayed by some

productions as a shadow, is the first time that Macbeth begins to hallucinate. His rapt,

overpowered state of mind is skilfully shown by Shakespeare to provide us with apocalyptic

imagery personified, "fatal vision", and the thought that a "false creation" could turn a

seemingly fair fate into such a foul ending. When the blood and gore become a reality, "the

cry of women", "Untimely ripped", and Macbeth meets his sword-shaped death, which he

speaks of in that soliloquy, "moves like a ghost", as personification and simile spell out the

real fate.

At the turning point of the play, III.4, it is questionable whether Macbeth is hallucinating

or not. This is still a good example of the fair /foul theme because Banquo's death was

supposed to be a good thing for Macbeth, but it turned out to be bad, whether in the mind

of Macbeth (maybe through the witches' speculative powers) or as the genuine ghost that is

scripted by Shakespeare, with some in-appropriate, pretty language. The ghost of Banquo

represents the change of feelings, of and towards the Macbeth couple, because Macbeth is

sent into an even more psychotic, but still repetitive rapture, "It will have blood, they say;

blood will have blood", while the innocent flower withers and dies and havoc and evil reign

in his kingdom, "turned wild in nature", but lady Macbeth becomes seriously mentally ill.

At the start of act five, it is lady Macbeth's turn to be hallucinatory. In scene one of that

act, she admits she is really the evil one, as she was the one who projected the idea of a

wolf in sheep's clothing, although disguised by Macbeth's polysyllabic personification, "Be

bright and jovial among your guests tonight", and she ends up as the wolf. Shakespeare

attempts to redeem her and not leave her on such a sour note as Macbeth, but possessive,

selfish, un-dignified metaphors, "Hell is murky", "All the perfumes of Arabia...", only drive

the indifferent, spoilt character more into the role as the villain, before Macbeth kills

mercilessly.

Dramatic Irony shows the theme superbly because the audience can know of the truth

while the characters do not. We first see Macbeth as being fouler than we originally thought

when he initially makes his metaphorical lies. The now persuaded and focused Macbeth uses

Shakespeare's dramatic irony as the audience are aware of his thoughts as he deceives the

righteous Banquo, "I think not of them", when he first shows the audience that he is a traitor,

while the killed traitor was replaced by him. When the play has turned against Macbeth, so

has the dramatic irony. We heard in V.4 that the prophecy of the witches has deceived

Macbeth and the Bard so comically yet sincerely with his own metaphors shows Macbeth

hearing the news, "The wood began to move", where the tragic hero is told of a seemingly

fair protection against death, turned foul against him into certain fate.

The tone is not such a happy and pleased one in IV.3. We can imagine the audience

distraught and upset when the unfortunate Macduff is first lied to by Ross, but then the news

breaks. Shakespeare increases the tragedy by Ross' equivocal words "They were well at

peace" to increase the dramatic irony before he sickens the audience with his blunt upheaval

of alliterative comparison, "your wife and babes savagely slaughtered", drawing people

away from the idea that death is rest, first touched upon by the mercurial Macbeth.

The disturbed Shakespeare is very obsessed the death of young characters. The people

visiting the play will be very distressed by the playwright's veracity to beguiled murderers as

first a small boy is brutally hacked down by the assassins, "He has killed me mother", (and

even he can use metaphor, "shag-haired villain") followed by a teenager losing his life in vain,

"Thou liest, abhorred tyrant!", as the bewitched main character goes on his last run. This

shows dramatic irony because we already know that "only one of women born shall harm

Macbeth" so Shakespeare shows off his literary skills as the characters in Macbeth show

their true states of mind through their language.

Virtually the whole play contains the fair/foul theme; from the very first scene, until the

moment in which Macbeth dies. As his evil world disintegrates, Malcolm concludes saying

that righteousness is returned and the end of Macbeth signals the absence appearance

versus reality, "That fled the snares of watchful tyranny", and that Scotland will continue

under his reign and significantly, James I's. He believes that Macbeth was not the totally

guilty one, "Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen", but the dead Lady is.

Shakespeare must end the play relevant especially to James I, as a happy ending because

the king would not like to see his fears the witches win or his possible ancestors lose.