Comparing Acts of William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Comparing Acts of William Shakespeare's Macbeth

In Act one scene five lady Macbeth reads out the letter sent to her

from Macbeth about his recent meeting with the three witches. The

letter tells the story of what the witches have said to him and

Banquo, but in the letter he leaves out that he was with Banquo when

he met with the witches. The witches say, lines 67-8 'Thou shalt be

kings, though thou be none; So all hail Macbeth and Banquo!' this line

says that they will not be kings in themselves but instead father

kings in the future. Macbeth lies in the letter about these facts as

he wants to be king himself and needs his wife's backing fully in

order for him to become king. This seems to tell his wife that the

witches have specially chosen him to be king. He wants his wife to

think that he is brave and big enough to become king, by saying what

the witch's have supposedly foreseen.

Towards the end of the scene Lady Macbeth describe the news she has

just received as good in the line 'Give him tending; he brings great

news.' Line 37-8. She seems to think that Macbeth is a great man and

that the witch's prophecies are correct and believes everything that

Macbeth has said even though it maybe slightly different to the real

truth. I do not agree with this but as Lady Macbeth does not know the

full story may believe that Macbeth has truly met prophets who have

told him that he will be king, knowing the full story I believe

Macbeth is very much a coward lying to his wife and acting like he has

become the chosen one to become the next king, this gets lady Macbeths

hopes up and know all she can focus on is to become the queen, this is

an intelligent plan to get lady Macbeths backing for his bid to become

king seeing as she is probably more ruthless and ambitious than

Macbeth himself.

There are many themes that run through the play, these themes or