Appearance Vs Reality Macbeth

Have you ever saw something that wasn’t really there? If a hallucination or apparition gave you information about your future, would you believe it? The character of Macbeth walks a fine line along the edge of what's real and what isn’t. The contrast between appearance and reality, whether it be through visions or prophecy, provides an additional experience when reading the play, Macbeth By William Shakespeare. The Witches in the play give Macbeth a prophecy, more specifically, a prophecy about his future. Their motivation for this action was the idea that telling Macbeth his future, will influence him to act in a way that will fulfill the prophecy. Now the Witches reasoning for this sequence creates a sort of paradox; if the witches had not told Macbeth the prophecy about his future, the prophecy would fail to be true which, in turn, would deem it irrelevant. A prophecy by nature is a prediction and their prediction was false until they intervene. A witness to the play can imagine whether or not Macbeth believed what he saw and heard from the witches. This creates an alternate understanding of the plot events that follow the prophecy scene. …show more content…
One of the most important lines of their statement was, “all hail macbeth...king hereafter” (act 1 sc 3 ln 51-53). The plot of Macbeth peaks with the fulfillment of this line later on in the play. The question is; without this being told to Macbeth would he have gone down the path he chose and carried out what he did? Additionally did Macbeth even believe what the Witches had said? The story can be seen as Macbeth having free will and not being swayed by the comments of a supernatural medium except to the point of questioning whether they were plausible or as Macbeth being greeted by Witches and being heavily influenced by what they