please help me about a sentence from Macbeth play"fair is foul,and foul is fair"?

Question

please friends I have an exam about it recently

Answer 1

I think basically Shakespeare is saying that all is fair, even the low down rotten things you could do to win.

Answer 2

OK - this is right at the beginning of the play and serves two purposes:

1. On the basic level (as per the extract below from Clicknotes), we are being told that the witches are evil and they dislike "fair" (ie. nice) things and prefer the "foul" (ie. evil) things.

2. On a slighter deeper level, Shakespeare is setting the tone for the play. Characters and events that may seem, on the surface, to be good ("fair") will turn out to be bad ("foul").

In the play as a whole, people are tossed about by forces that they cannot control, and so it is in the opening scene. The witches, blown by the storms of nature and war, swirl in, then out. As soon as we see them, they are on their way out again, and the first one is asking, When shall we three meet again? / In thunder, lightning, or in rain?" (1.1.1-2).
They will meet when "the battle's lost and won" (1.1.4). Note the "and." It's not when the battle is lost or won. If someone wins, someone also loses; it doesn't really matter to the witches, who don't take sides with people, only against them.

The first witch asks where they will meet, and the other two tell her that it will be upon the "heath," a barren, windswept place, in order to meet Macbeth. Then they're off, called by their familiar spirits, one of which inhabits a grey cat, and another of which lives in a toad.

As they leave, they chant a witchly chant: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair: / Hover through the fog and filthy air" (1.1.11-12). As creatures of the night and the devil, they like whatever is "foul" and hate the "fair." So they will "hover" in the fog, and in the dust and dirt of battle, waiting for the chance to do evil.

Answer 3

This phrase-the witches' quote: 'Fair is foul and foul is fair occurs in the opening scene of the play It sets up one of the most predominant themes in the play, and first scenes, first chapters are often very interesting in retrospect after you have finished a novel or play.The dark aura of the witches dominates this early section of the play; their trochaic ncantations,stunningly distinct from the iambic speech of the other characters, along with their strange and grotesque figures of speech, establish a mood for theplay that never really dissipates, even when the weird sisters recede into the background of the play's action. One of Shakespeare's most effective devices with the witches is to have them speak in language of contradiction.The line "Fair is foul and foul is fair" is the best example.

The tone in Act I, scene 1 is set with this Witches' quote,the storm and theit predictions prognosticating that Macbeth's life will become so confused that he will find it difficult to differentiate between right and wrong (fair and foul), The predictions of the witches foreshadow a downfall of which the audience is aware of long before Macbeth is willing to accept their implications. Foreshadowing is used through probing questions. (a) The play opens with thunder and lightning as three witches enter. If Macbeth is set for examinatioin you can ask yourself,'What does this tell about the mood of the play? Is this play going to be a tragedy or a comedy? (b) What do the witches mean when they say, "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (I,i)? What does this tell you about what is likely to go on during the play? (c) If you were going to stage this scene, what would your set look like?

Answer 4

The previous answer is very good, but the sentence is also directed to the audience of the play. They will see people who are good and/or bad, fair and foul. And it is the question to understand fair and foul, who is good and who is bad although the audience will "hover through fog and filthy air". The audience will not be able to understand directly who is good or bad and why and its the main theme of the play to see how and why people get corrupted.

Answer 5

This is a theme on how appearances can be deceiving. What appears to be fair may in fact be foul, and what appears to be foul may in fact be fair. One example being the deceptive facade of Lady MacBeth.