But 'tis strange;
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray 's
In deepest consequence. (1.3.123-126)
Afterwards Duncan proceeds to allow the new thane of Cawdor, Macbeth, to deceive him at the cost of Duncan's life and cause what the first thane of Cawdor had lost (the uprising against the king) to be won by Macbeth. We again encounter double meanings when Angus speaking of the first thane of Cawdor says
"But treasons capital, confess'd and prov'd
Have overthrown him." (1.3.115-116)
Examples like these pervade the play thoroughly enhancing the double meaning to be found almost everywhere.
Macbeth's first appearance in the play finds him repeating the witch's words from the opening scene: "So foul and fair a day I have not seen." (1.3.38). After the witches first encounter with him and Banquo, Macbeth says in an aside,
"If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
Without my stir." (1.3.143-144)
At this moment Macbeth demonstrates a belief in the controlling force of fate. He indicates that if this is truly meant to be it will happen without help from him. However, he almost immediately turns around and begins to take matters into his own hands as he communicates with his wife and begins to plot the murder of Duncan. He has begun to equivocate claiming fate will make it happen while still taking matters into his own hands demonstrating a lack of faith in the fate he believes gives him grounds for his claim to the throne. Macbeth finally finds himself betrayed by his stance when he says
"I pull in resolution, and begin
To doubt th' equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth." (5.6.42-43)
“The doom was written, the decree was past.
Ere the foundations of the world were cast.”
Macbeth’s fate was to have his head chopped off by a child born through unnatural means. When Malcolm (Future King of Scotland) came to avenge the death of his father and reclaim his throne, they came camouflaged as trees. Macduff was the one to chop off Macbeth’s head, as he was a caesarian born, and the one to lead Macbeth to his pre-determined fate.
The story goes into great detail about how the revenge was taken, but nonetheless emphasizes what a man’s destiny is and how, even when he thinks he may have achieved it, fate holds something completely different in store for him. Whether man has control over his fate or not is an on-going argument that man is yet to understand but one thing is for certain, that when he thinks he has achieved his destiny by cheating fate, he may get knocked down with a blow when fate takes it’s toll, as it did with Macbeth.
“When fate has allowed to any man more than one great gift, accident or necessity seems usually to contrive that one shall encumber and impede the other.”(Swinburne)
The story implies that life is just a game, of which the results have already been determined.