The witches are the essence of Shakespeare’s use of foreshadowing. The witches say to Macbeth,
First Witch: All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
Second Witch: All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
Third Witch: All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” (I.iii.51-3).
The witches prophesy that Macbeth would become the Thane of Glamis, Cawdor …show more content…
The witches together out loud, “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” (I.i.12). Again, the witches personifies foreshadowing and that is what the witches symbolize, foreshadowing. The witches foreshadow how fair is bad and bad it fair. This relates to Macbeth, because he fairly became King by fouly killing King Duncan, and Macbeth dies in the end. His death is what is fair and just for him because of all the foul deeds he has done. Another use of foreshadowing and symbolism is when Lennox speaks to Macbeth and says, "the obscure bird / Clamour'd the livelong night" (II.iii.67-8). Lennox mentions an obscure bird, or an ominous bird, and that it called all night long keeping them awake. Lennox believes that those calls is a prophecy of death. The ominous bird both symbolizes the mystery of death and foreshadows that death is coming; the death that occurred was King Duncan’s death. Macbeth meets with the witches and asks for another prophecy, the witches summons apparitions to tell Macbeth. The second apparition tells of Macbeth’s death, “Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.” (IV.i.90-2). The apparition blatantly foreshadows Macbeth’s death because once Macbeth meets someone not woman born, that person will be able to kill him. The apparition symbolizes the Macbeth’s killer; the apparition is a bloody child, a child possibly taken through