The Enigma Solved

Part I of Essay
When we first hear of Macbeth, he is a man much honored by his countrymen for his leading and courageous part in defense of his good king and native land. However, almost as soon as we meet him, we realize that he is both ambitious and murderous. For as soon as the Witches ....

Part II of Essay
.... methods in mind, he in effect thinks of the predictions as invitations to murder. Although Macbeth does not understand the trick his mind has played on him, he has in fact been warned away from falling into the very trap laid for him by his ambitions and by the Witches. Banquo warns Macbeth, after the latter has learned that he has been made the Thane of Cawdor, that the agents of the devil sometimes tell us small truths "to betrays/ In deepest consequence." But the unheeding Macbeth in the very next speech refers to the predictions as "supe ....