macbeth act 4

• seeking supernatural - “tell me”/“call em”

  • Hubris is explicit as Macbeth enters, speaks with imperative Phrases “tell me,” “call ‘em”
  • driven by greed & hunger for power
  • First intentional encounter of witches, reinforcing abandonment of resisting evil
  • no longer pretends to be scrupulous, fully embraces tyrannical demeanour
• seeking supernatural - witches prophecies 


  • Witches summon 3 apparitions; manifestations of Macbeth’s threats

  1. “Armed head” — warns of Macduff, emblematic of violent battle — foreshadows decapitation
  2. “a Bloody child” — Macduff, born by caesarean section
  3. Each prophecy is equivocal, the second is pertinent: “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth”

  • Ambiguous — hubris blinds him, reading into deception
  • Gives ephemeral sense of security and invincibility, yet still plots to kill Macduff (“thou shalt not live”)
  • Exposing how his ambition & thirst for blood & violence rather than fear or ambition