hat is bad will be good.” To allude to the initial prophecy of the witches, the first line that Macbeth states in the play is, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen, (1.3. 38). This repetition links Macbeth to the witches. The witches’ prophecy to Macbeth and Banquo lets them know of their future outcome. The ‘weird sisters’ greet Macbeh with this title, not yet knowing that he is now Thane of Cawdor. The witches also tell Macbeth that he is also to be King of Scotland. This prophecy leads Macbeth into a state of mind that he cannot control. He is now thirsty for power and the only way that he can get that power is to kill the king.The witches tell Banquo that he will be lesser and greater than Macbeth; they tell him he will never be king, yet his sons will. His response to the premonitions of the ‘weird sisters’ was still clueless. He doesn’t know what to think and he advises Macbeth to forget about the evil that they have just heard. In Shakespeare’s Tragedies: An Introduction, Dieter Mehl states, “In contrast to his source, Shakespeare lays great stress on the different reactions of Banquo and Macbeth and this alone should make perfectly clear that the ‘weird sisters’’ power over human will is very limited; they can suggest, not direct, and they do not directly circumscribe the freedom of their chosen victim.”(109). As the play continues, Macbeth returns from his unusual encounter with the three witches and meets King Duncan. King Duncan greets Macbeth with respect and honor and then announces that he is naming his own son, Malcolm to succeed him as king. This creates a conflict for Macbeth because Malcolm will now be another obstacle to overcome in order for him to achieve his goal of succeeding Duncan as king.Before Macbeth becomes king, he is in the process of deciding whether or not he should continue on with the plan of killing the...
