Macbeth Themes

Appearance Vs. Reality:
In scene Three Macbeth has an inner struggle with himself. In his head he says, " Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see." (1.3.51-53) Macbeth is basically saying Let the darkness cover my evil desires. What his hands must do he doesn't want to see, because it scares him but it must be done. In Macbeth's mind he wants to kill the king but when he talks to King Duncan he acts like nothing is wrong like he doesn't know what the witches told him, just as though nothing has happened. King Duncan tells Malcolm that he trusts Macbeth completely. Macbeth is appearing to be fine and act like nothings wrong but in reality he wants to kill King Duncan so he can rule Scotland.

Gender Roles:
At the beginning of scene three, Macbeth talks to the Three Witches also known as the Weird Sisters. The sisters Tell Macbeth that he is the Thane of Glamis, that he will become Thane of Cawdor, and then the king of Scotland. He then questions the hags, but before they answer anything they disappear. At first he doesn't believe the strange hags, until Ross calls him the Thane of Cawdor. At this point Macbeth starts to believe the witches. He begins to think about how hes going to accomplish the goal of becoming king of Scotland. The way Gender plays out is When three women tell him hes going to be Thane of Cawdor he doesn't believe them but when one man calls him the thane before the original Thane is killed he believes him.


Loyalty and Honor:
Macbeth starts out as a loyal subject King Duncan, until he starts getting more power and learns his destiny. After he learns that he will become king he starts to turn on King Duncan, He secretly starts thinking about killing him to because ruler of Scotland. He has an inner struggle with him self and becomes scared of what hes thinking. even though he is scared he continues to plan King Duncans death in his mind.