Theme Of Appearance And Reality In Macbeth

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In the opening scene of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," the three witches start off by chanting "Fair is foul and foul is fair". This is a obvious contradiction and paradox that will be seen throughout the entire rest of the play. The theme of appearance vs reality occurs regularly throughout the story. Even though the characters are very real in their actions and ideas many of them, through the whole story, have a hard time figuring out whether what's happening is real and what isn't. Also he says through the entire play that it's easy to be deceived and also to deceive somebody else. This play is full of smaller motifs and themes that make up the larger one I'm writing about like rumors and fears, vague language, and true stuff hidden inside riddles. The three witches are the embodiment of evil and equivocation. They clearly have the skill to disguise good as evil and evil as good which is also a paradox. They also play a really big role in Macbeth's fate by introducing into him doubt and destructive ambition, foreshadow. They are the main leaders of mixing appearance and r...

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