Scene 1 of Macbeth establishes time
rather than place as a major motif. For, Macbeth, too, acts according to time. In
Scene 2, for instance, Macbeth is described as an opportunist by the Captain who lauds
Macbeth's bravery at seizing the moment and "disdaining fortune" by slaying the
"merciless" Macdonwald. In Scene 3, Macbeth is unaware that King Duncan has already
made him Thane of Cawdor, and, after listening to the three witches, he deliberates
whether he should wait and let fate take its course or take the leap from being Thane of
Cawdor to "King hereafter" (1.3.52-53):
If chance will have me King, why, chance may
crown me,
Without my
stir. (1.3.155-156)
And, yet, Macbeth has misgivings after Banquo warns him that the witches may be telling
half-truths. Added to this, Macbeth has twinges of conscience and a sense of
foreboding:
This supernatural soliciting
Cannot
be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
Why hath it given me earnest of success,
Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
If good, why do I
yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And
make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present
fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder
yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother'd in surmise,and nothing is
But what is not.
(1.3.141-153)
For Macbeth
there is a blurring of the lines between good and bad. The predictions begin with
truth: Macbeth is Thane of Cawdor, yet the goodness of this truth is mitigated by the
thoughts of murdering Duncan that enter Macbeth's heart. Still, rather than examining
his own conscience thoroughly, Macbeth wishes to place the blame upon chance as he says
those lines mentioned previously,
If chance will have me King, why, chance my
crown me,
Without my stir.
(1.3.155-156)
In actuality,
Macbeth capitalizes upon opportunity, using the predictions of the three sisters
to rationalize his own cupidity as he thinks,
Come what come may,
Time and the hour
runs through the roughest day.
(1.3.161-162)
Thus, Macbeth,
who ponders the good and bad of things, manipulates time to his own advantage, using the
witches predictions to justify his thoughts of murdering Duncan so that he can be "King
herafter."
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