Scene summary
In a cave in the marsh, the Witches sing around a boiling cauldron and throw in ingredients such as toad, snake's fillet, eye of newt, wolf's tooth, and baboon's blood. Hecate arrives and approves their work. Macbeth enters and orders them to answer his questions, reminding them of the winds they unleash and that bring castles down. They offer to summon their masters, and Macbeth agrees. First a helmeted head rises, which tells him to beware Macduff, Thane of Fife, and Macbeth thanks it for guessing his fears. The second apparition, a bloody child, says that no one born of woman can harm Macbeth. He concludes that Macduff may live, but decides to kill him anyway, to have a second guarantee and sleep in peace. The third, a crowned child holding a tree, promises that he will not be defeated until Birnam Wood marches against Dunsinane Hill, and Macbeth replies that this will never happen. When he asks whether Banquo's descendants will reign, the Witches refuse to answer, but he insists, and sees eight kings parade past, the last one holding a mirror, while Banquo, bloodied, smiles and points to them as his own. The Witches dance and vanish, and Macbeth curses the hour. Lennox enters with the news that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth decides to act at once: he will seize Macduff's castle and put his wife, his children, and all his family to the sword.
Analysis
Macbeth returns to the Sisters because he wants to know the worst, as he said at the end of the banquet, and he accepts their promises of security. Even so, when Lennox brings news that Macduff has fled to England, he decides to massacre the man's family. The promised security does not calm him: what drives him is not to leave any risk alive. Macduff's family pays for being within reach.
Second apparition: Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.
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