Fair And Foul Is Fair Macbeth

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the protagonist becomes torn between destiny and ambition, between fate and desire. Told simply of what could be, he motivates himself to commit terrible and violent acts. By doing what he believes he must, he ultimately destroys himself in the process. Wrong becomes right, and right becomes wrong. For this reason, the theme "fair is foul and foul is fair" remains constant throughout the tale.

In the first act, the witches meet on the heath. In response to the first witch asking when they will again meet, the second witch says, "When the hurly-burly's done/when the battle's lost and won." Of course, that's contradictory; one side cannot both win and lose a battle. However, if you think of it instead as one battle with both a losing and winning side, it makes sense. This supports the theme by showing the original assumption- that both victory and loss cannot occur simultaneously- to be false. Wrong becomes right, only after you think of it differently.

After the king has died, Ross speaks with an old man, and to him says, "By th' clock 'tis day,/And yet dark

For example, in act four, during Macduff and Malcolm’s conversation, Macduff says, “Each new morn/ New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows/ Strike heaven on the face.” Simply, that due to Macbeth’s seizure of the throne, tragedy has befallen the land. Nevertheless, “fair is foul and foul is fair” persists throughout the entire play, even prior to the king’s death. Additionally, the very principle of a king taking the throne as a catalyst to tragedy supports the theme of “fair is foul and foul is fair.” Because Macbeth originally viewed taking the throne as a way to make himself happy, but ends up dead, it is shown that something deemed fair becomes foul. Therefore, the very argument against “fair is foul and foul is fair” ends up supporting