Key idea 1: The supernatural as a mirror of our ‘natural’ selves
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air” -
● paradox + antimetabole which shows up as a syntactical ‘mirror’
● Inverted syntax suggests that what's good on the outside can be rotten within -
Duncan could be the “fair is foul” + perhaps the witches are the “foul is fair”
● the witches function as a mirror to Macbeth’s private self
“I will drain him dry as hay, Sleep shall neither night nor day, Hang upon his pent-house
lid; He shall live a man forbid, Weary se’nnights nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak
and pine, Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost” -
● forebodes what will happen to Macbeth, he will be encircled by the mental
‘storms’ of his guilt + suffer endless sleepless nights
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” “Live you?” “what seem’d corporal melted/As
breath into the wind”
● Macbeth’s natural affinity to the witches - before he’s seen them he echoes their
lexis in his statement
● Macbeth assumes the witches have human faculties before they’ve spoken, we
can infer this through their commands to “speak”
● the simile shows that Macbeth presupposes that these supernatural beings are
more human than creatures + he establishes a link between himself and the
witches
Key idea 2: The supernatural as a reminder of man’s mortal limits
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair, Hover through the fog and filthy air” -
● paradox + antimetabole which shows up as a syntactical ‘mirror’
● Inverted syntax suggests that what's good on the outside can be rotten within -
Duncan could be the “fair is foul” + perhaps the witches are the “foul is fair”
● the witches function as a mirror to Macbeth’s private self
“I will drain him dry as hay, Sleep shall neither night nor day, Hang upon his pent-house
lid; He shall live a man forbid, Weary se’nnights nine times nine, Shall he dwindle, peak
and pine, Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost” -
● forebodes what will happen to Macbeth, he will be encircled by the mental
‘storms’ of his guilt + suffer endless sleepless nights
“So foul and fair a day I have not seen.” “Live you?” “what seem’d corporal melted/As
breath into the wind”
● Macbeth’s natural affinity to the witches - before he’s seen them he echoes their
lexis in his statement
● Macbeth assumes the witches have human faculties before they’ve spoken, we
can infer this through their commands to “speak”
● the simile shows that Macbeth presupposes that these supernatural beings are
more human than creatures + he establishes a link between himself and the
witches
Key idea 2: The supernatural as a reminder of man’s mortal limits
