The first Act of Macbeth focuses on Macbeth finding his true identity through the actions of everyone around him. This first starts with the three witches. They make three prophecies for Macbeth: his current status as Thane of Glamis, that he will become Thane of Cawdor, and that he will be king after that. This stays with Macbeth long after the witches are gone. At first he tries to ignore the prophecy but as time goes by he believes in the prophecy more and more, and for this reason, when King Duncan tells him hat he has decided to pass the throne to his own son, Malcolm, Macbeth becomes furious. Feeling betrayed, he goes to a corner and gives his famous speech which includes many examples of juxtaposition between light and dark, and good and evil. Duncan has not made Macbeth King, but he is still thankful for what Macbeth has done for him, and in return he decides to sleep in his house for a day. Macbeth discusses this and the prophecy with lady Macbeth, who then convinces Macbeth to murder the King while he is sleeping and become King. Macbeth agrees to this which then in turn completes his transformation to the man he really is from what he used to be disguised as. …show more content…
The first acts touches upon this theme many times such as in the first act when the witches say: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”, which is an example of a paradox and a great example of how appearances can be deceiving. This happens again in a line by Macbeth which reads: “Let not light see my black and deep desires”, which again ties back to appearance vs reality because Macbeth is a loyal soldier in appearance but in reality, he is thirsty for the throne. There are many more examples of this throughout but I will mention one more, said by Lady Macbeth, which reads: “Look like h’innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t”. This line perfectly summarizees the theme of