Significance of Act Four Scene One in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Significance of Act Four Scene One in William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Macbeth is a well-known play written by Shakespeare in the early

1600s. The main theme of the play is the downfall of a noble hero and

how he turns into a bloodthirsty murderer after being misled by the

witches. The witches equivocated the truth to Macbeth to make him

believe that he had the power to become King. This brought to light a

flaw in his character as he turned into a traitor and murderer with

the help of the witches who were plotting against him from the

beginning and also with the help of Lady Macbeth just to fulfill his

ambition. We can tell that Macbeth is easily manipulated especially by

what the apparitions say to him in Act 4 scene 1.

This scene is significant in the play as it forms the basis of

Macbeth's weakness. Throughout the play, we see that the witches do

not exactly lie to Macbeth, they tell him the truth but the way they

say it is to mislead him into believing something else, as they are

very scheming and conniving. Hecate's plan was to make Macbeth feel

secure and confident about his character:

"…Shall draw him on to his confusion.

He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear

His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace and fear.

And you all know, security

Is mortals' chiefest enemy."

Macbeth's thoughts towards the apparitions were that he was invincible

and that no one could touch him. The reason he thought this was due to

the way Hecate and the witches had made him feel about his character,

which was that he felt over-confident about himself and that he

thought of himself as invincible. Now that Macbeth is confident about

himself, we see that he doesn't doubt the witches and in this scene,

he goes back to them for more information and this is when he sees the

apparitions and believes them fully. The first apparition says "Beware

Macduff" so Macbeth is prepared to make risks and sets off to kill