Here we are given a clear indication that the evil sisters have simply been toying with Macbeth. It reveals that the witches view Macbeth as someone they can use for fun and it shows us that that is all they have been doing throughout the play. Once Macbeth arrives, he makes demands, and for the first time in the play, we see the witches agree to answer to Macbeth s commands. This could be because they want to play more mind games with him, or because they feel now that he has become so evil and ruthless, they like him. The witches conjure up three apparitions for Macbeth. The first apparition is a head in armour that chants “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; Beware the Thane of Fife.” The apparition makes way for another, the second illusion, which is a bloody child, who chants the same as the first to begin with “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!” then it exclaims “Be bloody, bold and resolute: laugh to scorn The power of man, for none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth.” The third and final vision comes in the form of a child, crowned with a tree in his hand. He declares ” Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:Macbeth shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill/Shall come against him.” With each apparition, Macbeth seems more and more sure of himself, as when he is told to beware Macduff, he simply decides to have Macduff killed off. When he is told no one of woman born can harm him, he does not think about whether there is any alternative birth, and when he is told the forest must move, he feels there is no forest that can uproot and transport itself. So he isn t worried, and he leaves feeling confident. Considering it was the witches who conjured the apparitions, and Macbeth had begun to be wary of them, for him to believe what the apparitions told him, as easily as he did, seemed silly to say the least. He feels secure and invincible as he leaves the witches. However, just as a precaution, he sends his men to kill Macduff. However, Macduff wasn t in the house, so the murderers kill Macduff s wife and son. When Macduff hears of this, he swears revenge. Meanwhile, we see Lady Macbeth going slowly mad. She begins to sleep walk, and is not able to cope with the guilt of the murders she pressured her husband into committing. She rubs her hands continuously and always has a light by her, as she is afraid of the dark. She rubs her hands to try and clear them of blood that is not there, and here we see the irony, and previously, when Macbeth tried to clear his hands, she easily told him “A little water clears us of this deed.” Whereas now, she walks around asking “What, will these hands ne er be clean?” Lady Macbeth eventually commits suicide, and we know this when Seyton tells Macbeth “The queen, my lord, is dead.” When he hears of this however, he shows no feeling all he says is that “she should have died hereafter.” Which makes the reader believe that Macbeth has lost the ability to feel because of his corrupt ways. The apparition begin to become true, and we first here of this when a lookout messenger comes to Macbeth and tells him “the wood began to move”, Macbeth s first reaction to this news is to call the messenger a “liar and slave!” Which indicates that either Macbeth truly doesn t believe it could happen, or doesn t want to believe it could happen. We see now that the witches hadn t lied in their apparitions, but in fact, Macbeth had misinterpreted what he had seen, and had seen what he wanted to see. A battle commences as Macbeth feels that he still cannot be killed by anyone, unless they aren t born of a woman. In his mind, that is still nobody. However, as he had misinterpreted the apparitions, it was actually Macduff who wasn t of woman born. He was “from his mother s womb Untimely ripped.” Macbeth seemed confident still, until he heard those words, at which point Macbeth and Macduff fight, and Macduff kills Macbeth. Order is restored in Scotland, and Malcolm is crowned King. Before he falls, Macbeth talks about the witches and decides, that the “juggling fiends” should be “no more believed” as they “palter with us in double sense.” So, it is at his last breath that Macbeth realises everything the witches had ever said to him, had had double meaning, and was far too ambiguous to be trusted. However, Macbeth believed every word, so much so, that he based his fight and life on it. It is clear to me that Macbeth should be blamed for his own downfall, as it was his prerogative whether or not to believe or trust what the witches told him. The witches, nevertheless, played an enormous part in the downfall of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They started the ball rolling, and Macbeth soaked up every word they told him. The first time they met him, they gave him their three prophecies, at which point, he became greedy and power hungry. Lady Macbeth developed a guilty conscience, which in the end took her life.