de the spark for Macbeth’s explosion onto King Duncan. They plant the idea of him becoming king with a witty strategy in which they tell him half-truths, so that he will succumb to believing the false half of the lie since the later half is true. During the third scene of Act I, Macbeth and Banquo, his friend, encounter the three witches, who call him the “Thane of Cawdor” and he who “shalt be king hereafter!” (I, III, 50-51). The fact that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor is true. Yet, the prediction that he would rightfully become king is false. This prediction gives him the confidence to kill King Duncan since the witches must have been right, as he thought, since they were correct regarding him becoming the Thane of Cawdor. Without the witches, Macbeth would have never had the encouragement to kill his loyal friend. However, while the witches are not entirely responsible for the actions of Macbeth, they are responsible for introducing the ideas to him, which in turn fires up his ambition, and leads to a disastrous and unnecessary chain of events.One must note that the promoters of Kind Duncan’s murder are all female. This is contrary to the familiar understanding of women, who, instinctively, are nurturing and caring creatures. Because of this, Shakespeare performs a magnificent job of letting the reader know of their masculinity, and how whenever he hints at their masculinity, a malign event is forthcoming. When Macbeth and Banquo first set eyes on the witches, they are aghast at the sinister sight of the ugly women. Banquo states that they “should be women, / and yet [their] beards forbid [him] to interpret/ that [they] are so”(I, III, 45- Komery 347). They are so hideous to Banquo that he believes that he could actually mistake them for being men. Interestingly enough, after this line, the witches make their prophecy about Macbeth becoming the king of...
