ManyMargins‹ Macbeth: debatesRead Act 1, Scene 3
Macbeth · Act 1, Scene 3
Temptation or hidden desire?
Do the witches predict Macbeth’s future, or create it?
The Close Reader
The Historian
The Source Hunter
The Character Analyst
Create
The witches help create Macbeth’s future by making kingship seem certain.
THIRD WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!
The Close ReaderPredict or create? ‘shalt’ makes kingship sound certain, planting a future Macbeth can chase.
MACBETH
Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more. By Sinel’s death I know I am Thane of Glamis; …
The Character Analyst replying to the Close ReaderHis plea, ‘tell me more’, suggests their promise has already hooked his desire.
THIRD WITCH
All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!
The Source Hunter replying to the Character AnalystIn Holinshed’s Chronicles, too, the witches’ royal prediction prompts Macbeth’s plans to seize power.
Predict
The witches predict events, but Macbeth supplies the murderous ambition.
ROSS
And, for an earnest of a greater honour, He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor: In which addition, hail, most worthy thane, For it is thine.
The HistorianCawdor is Duncan’s grant of a Scottish title, not something the witches create.
MACBETH
… Are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man …
The Close Reader replying to the HistorianAnd ‘My thought’ makes murder Macbeth’s contribution. Their greeting promises kingship, not killing.
BANQUO
Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear Things that do sound so fair?—I’ th’ name of truth, …
The Character Analyst replying to the Close ReaderHis instant fear could reveal a wish he already carries, rather than something newly planted.
Verdict
Their promise may awaken his desire without deciding his actions.
MACBETH
If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me Without my stir.
The Close Reader‘Without my stir’ leaves another route open: becoming king need not mean choosing murder.
More on Act 1, Scene 3
His fear gives him awayWhy does Macbeth fear a prophecy that ‘sounds so fair’?Readers disagreeAnswer
He may fear the supernatural, the upheaval needed to become king, or his own violent response. Banquo notices that he ‘start[s]’, while Macbeth admits that a ‘horrid image’ has seized him.
The ‘good’ man wants answersIs Banquo genuinely cautious, or secretly tempted too?Readers disagreeAnswer
Banquo warns that ‘instruments of darkness’ use truths to cause harm. However, he asks for his own prophecy and later repeats that his children will be kings, showing real interest in it.
A title that does not fitWhat makes ‘borrow’d robes’ the scene’s key image?Readers disagreeAnswer
The image makes Macbeth’s new title feel strange and not yet his own; Banquo later develops it through ‘strange garments’. It can suggest innocent discomfort, unstable identity, or ominously that Macbeth is taking another man’s place.