Macbeth’s witches, or Weird Sisters, as they are sometimes called, symbolically personify the idea of supernatural forces at work in people’s lives. The prophecies originally foretold by them to Banquo and, especially, Macbeth of the lofty heights to which both of them would rise, set into motion the ideas which drive the remainder of the play. However, even before the meeting of Macbeth and the witches, Shakespeare created a link between the two personae. The last line, spoken in unison, by the Weird Sisters in the first scene of the play goes “Fair is foul, and foul is fair,” (1.1.11) the connection between that line and the first line spoken by Macbeth, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (1.3.39) is evidence that the relationship between
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Lady Macbeth, although not responsible for wielding the murderous dagger herself, is equally as responsible as her husband for the murders he committed. After she has received Macbeth’s letter which has informed her of the witches’ message, she muses that her husband is ambition he is “without / The illness should attend it” (1.5.20-21). Clearly, she does not see herself as similar to Macbeth in that when she calls upon spirits “That tend on mortal thoughts” (1.5.42) and asks them to remove her natural feelings of compassion. Earlier in the scene, when Lady Macbeth is considering her husband’s inclination toward honesty “that impedes” him “from the golden round,” her use of the word “golden” points toward a motive of ambition, as gold is a symbol of power and wealth (1.2.29). She makes it her duty to insure that Macbeth, and she by extension, receives the powers they have been promised by the witches by alleviating some of the pressure she knows Macbeth to be feeling. She tells him to put “This night’s great business into my dispatch; / Which shall to all our nights and days to come / Give solely solemn sway and masterdom” (1.5.68-71). Perhaps the evidence that most strongly propels Shakespeare’s theory that people murder because of the vices of ambition is Macbeth’s lines in which he compares his ambition to rider’s spurs driving him to murder. “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself” (1.7.25-27). Here, Macbeth plainly realizes his motive to murder Duncan is nothing but
Lady Macbeth, although not responsible for wielding the murderous dagger herself, is equally as responsible as her husband for the murders he committed. After she has received Macbeth’s letter which has informed her of the witches’ message, she muses that her husband is ambition he is “without / The illness should attend it” (1.5.20-21). Clearly, she does not see herself as similar to Macbeth in that when she calls upon spirits “That tend on mortal thoughts” (1.5.42) and asks them to remove her natural feelings of compassion. Earlier in the scene, when Lady Macbeth is considering her husband’s inclination toward honesty “that impedes” him “from the golden round,” her use of the word “golden” points toward a motive of ambition, as gold is a symbol of power and wealth (1.2.29). She makes it her duty to insure that Macbeth, and she by extension, receives the powers they have been promised by the witches by alleviating some of the pressure she knows Macbeth to be feeling. She tells him to put “This night’s great business into my dispatch; / Which shall to all our nights and days to come / Give solely solemn sway and masterdom” (1.5.68-71). Perhaps the evidence that most strongly propels Shakespeare’s theory that people murder because of the vices of ambition is Macbeth’s lines in which he compares his ambition to rider’s spurs driving him to murder. “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself” (1.7.25-27). Here, Macbeth plainly realizes his motive to murder Duncan is nothing but