Power of Equivocation in Shakespeare's Macbeth Equivocation is the practice of deliberately deceiving a listener without explicitly lying, either by using ambiguously misleading language or by withholding crucial information. William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a play about subterfuge and trickery. Macbeth, his wife, and the three Weird Sisters are linked in their mutual refusal to come right out and say things directly. They rely on implications, riddles, and ambiguity to evade the truth. Macbeth’s ability to manipulate his language and public image to hide his foul crimes makes him a very modern-seeming politician. Equivocation is a significant theme in the play and is used for both good and bad reasons, Macbeth ignores signs that he cannot trust the …show more content…
For instance, when telling Macduff of his family's murder, Ross tries to be sensitive to his feelings. But, the play's most harmful examples of ambiguity are the witches' misleading forecasts. Its ambiguity makes Macbeth feel invincible and gives him the impression that he can accomplish his goals at any cost. The ambiguities of the witches finally lead to Macbeth's demise and the annihilation of numerous lives.
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Although the witches are clearly evil and Macbeth does not trust them at first, his ambition leads him to ignore the signs of their equivocations, Banquo cautions Macbeth that the witches might be tricking him, but he ignores him. Instead, he lets their ambiguous words fool him, which is the cause of his demise. The witches' paradox that no one born of a woman can harm Macbeth is one illustration of their ambiguity. Because he reads the riddle literally, Macbeth thinks he is unbeatable. He later discovers that Macduff was born during a C-section, allowing him to execute