Act I: scenes 4-7

Ok, this may be a stretch, but hopefully its not. In the beginning of scene 4 Duncan is talking to Malcolm about the death of the Thane of Cawdor. The thane admitted to committing treason and just begged for forgiveness. Duncan then says "to find the mind's construction in the face: he was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust." I feel that Duncan was betrayed by this Thane of Cawdor, then he appoints Macbeth the new Thane of Cawdor. I find this may go along with the theme of doubles because his view on the Thanes of Cawdor is the same both times, and both times he's betrayed by them. And after Duncan says its weird how he could never tell by Mcdonwald's face that he was being betrayed by him, Macbeth walks in and he praises Macbeth by saying "o worthiest cousin!" So I feel that Duncan is falling into the same betrayal from before. Now I'm not sure if this would fall under the theme of doubles, but I think that it does and I find this very interesting that he was betrayed by different Thanes of Cawdor twice. Maybe he should have ended the title "Thane of Cawdor" to end the backstabbing, but he didn't, so he will die.

Act I: Scenes 1-3

One of the most important themes I saw in this section was in Scene I. You start off with three witches in a desert place with thunder and lightning. This is the theme of darkness and strangeness. There will be a lot more of this theme later in the play. I feel that this scene strongly foreshadows how most of the play will be. The setting is dark with the storm going on and the three witches definitely fit under the category of strange. The end of the scene ends with them chanting "fair is foul and foul is fair: hover through fog and filthy air." This chant is also dark and strange. It also foreshadows future events in the play.

The other big theme I saw in this section is at the beginning of Act III when the witches are talking again. Witch 1 is angry that some lady wouldn't give her some chestnuts, so she cursed his husband by taking away sleep from him. This is the first time they talked about sleep. By talking away sleep, she takes away that which makes him feel replenished and new. A lot of times in this play there is a need to sleep for kind of a cleansing process and she took that away from the sailor. So out of all the things that she could to she took away sleep, which shows that sleep is an important theme in the play.