Reality and Appearances

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Appearances can be deceptive

In Macbeth, characters often hide their thoughts and pretend to be something that they're not

Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to appear to be good so nobody suspects that he plans to kill Duncan

"look like th'innocent flower/But be the serpent under't" - Act 1, Scene 5

Macbeth knows that he needs a "False face" to hide his murderous acts

However, when Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost, his face is "the very painting" of his fear and betrays his feelings

At first, Lady Macbeth has no trouble disguising her evil behaviour

She pretends to faint with shock when Duncan's death is discovered

However, her guilt becomes too great to hide and she starts sleepwalking

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Meanings of words are unclear

The Witches' chant "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" suggests that things that appear good are actually evil

They use language to trick Macbeth and convince him of a false reality

They tell him that "none of woman born" will harm him, which gives him false confidence to fight to protect his reign

Other characters speak using paradoxes - Macbeth says "Nothing is/But what is not"

These paradoxes create uncertain - they show that nobody can tell what's real

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Some characters trust too much in appearances

In a world full of deception and lies, characters suffer when they trust in appearances too much

Duncan trusts Macbeth and dies for it, even though he made the same mistake by trusting the disloyal Thane of Cawdor

When this happens, Duncan says "There's no art/To find the mind's construction in the face" - he thinks there's no way of telling what someone's really like

Macbeth knows that reality and appearances don't always match up, but he completely trusts the Witches' prophecies

This leads to his downfall

In contrast, Malcolm is immediately sceptical that Duncan was murdered by his servants and suspects one of the thane: "To show an unfelt sorrow is an office/Which the false man does easy"

His awareness of what "false" men can do causes him to flee and probably saves his life

Apparitions and visions seem real to the characters who see them, but they're a sign that the character can't tell reality from appearance