Anyone know about Macbeth?

Question

In the first scene of Act one... all of the witches say "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" and i'm not sure what they mean by that. Can anyone tell me the point and why it is important to the scene. I'd really appreciate it... Thanks :p

Answer 1

It's part of their chant, so it doesn't have any literal meaning--it's just a paradox. However, it relates to the play's theme of the difficulty of seeing the truth, the likelihood of making mistakes. The witches combine elements that shouldn't go together; for instance, they are women but they have beards. Their function in the play is to make Macbeth think that "foul" things are really "fair."

The phrase also echoes the line--I think from Banquo--"So fair and foul a day I have not seen."

Answer 2

Do you go to the same school as Neda N? She asked exactly the same question a day or two ago - here is my answer :

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

I'm learning about Macbeth in English right now, and the book and my teacher told me exactly what it means. It's referring to how everything in the world is topsy turvy. To the Weird Sisters what is ugly is beautiful, and what is beautiful is ugly: "Fair is foul and foul is fair." Throughout the play, fair appearances hide foul realities. For example, Macbeth seems to be fair, but is truly foul, as with his wife. It is significant to the play because they are saying that bad things are starting. You see, what the witches want most is for evil to run rampant. They can sense that the seemlingly fair or 'peaceful', non evil atmosphere will soon shift into the foul or evil, because of Macbeth's greed and ambition. Please give me the best answer. I know what I'm talking about, I JUST learnt about this from my English teacher.

Answer 4

'Fair is foul, and foul is fair:
Hover through the fog and filthy air'.

The three hags like whatever is "foul" and hate the "fair." They will "hover" in the fog, and dirt of battle, waiting for the chance to do evil.
This shows at the start of the play that appearances can be deceiving. What appears to be good can also be bad, and this is later seen in such things as the deceptive side of Lady Macbeth, and in the predictions of the witches - good for one person but bad for the other.

Answer 5

so i keep seeing your questions about macbeth so if you need anymore help i would be glad to because im currently studying macbeth in my AP english class. so ive spent hours discussing it...neways...on to your answer

Fair is foul, and foul is fair means that to the witches foul deeds and mischeif are good because it gives them great pleasure to do evil deeds.

this is in the first act i believe and it gives the reader or viewer the knowledge that these witches are up to no good and that you can expect evil from them...seeing as how they lead macbeth to do all the terrible deeds he does throughout the story.

hope i could be of some help

Answer 6

the witches basically turn everything upside down; this is why they believe that anything "fair is foul, and foul is fair." this ability to confuse the issue at hand is the main thing that turned macbeth and his wife down the path they took.

Answer 7

"Things are turned on their head"
"Things are, will not be, what they seem."

Or, more prosaically, take it as a rhyming chant for the spell that powers their flight to the meeting place. (Scene III)

"Noble Macbeth", King Duncan names his great general.
But there is more to him than that, as we shall see.

"So foul and fair a day I have not seen." says Macbeth.
The bloody battle that ended well, or just weird mixed weather stirred by the passage of the witches?

Answer 8

They mean that fair is bad tha they don't like it and they say that what is foul is fair because they hate it so much

Answer 9

instantaneous conflict. Boy MacBeth you're gonna be super, yet long term Banquo is gonna be greater important than you. as we talk its shown that those ultimate friends at the instant are not continuously going to be ultimate friends.

Answer 10

It is basically saying (to use a quote from another play, Jekyll and Hyde), that "Good is evil, and therefore all evil is good." It is to convince Macbeth to do the things he does in the play.