"Fair is foul and foul is fair" is a theme that suggests
how appearances differ from the reality beneath the surface. A good example of this is
how Lady Macbeth schools Macbeth to "look like the innocent flower/But be the serpent
under't."
From the time we first meet her in Act I, scene
v, Lady Macbeth is concerned about the goodness in Macbeth that she perceives as
weakness. She wants to alter his natural, honest behaviour to create a two-faced
murderer, able to smile and shake Duncan's hand, while simultaneously plotting the
King's murder.
When she first suggests the potential that
Duncan be murdered in their home, she comments on how easily Macbeth's face gives his
true feelings away:
Your face, my thane, is as a book, where
men
May read strange matters. To beguile the
time,
Look like the
time.
So, Lady Macbeth
schools Macbeth in how to appear "fair" while remaining "foul"
underneath.
She displays her own skill in this art at the
banquet in Act III, scene iv. Even when she doesn't know exactly what has spooked
Macbeth, she strives desperately to put a "fair" face on what is certainly a "foul"
moment. She assures the lords assembled:
Sit, worthy friends. My lord is often
thus...
The fit is momentary. Upon a
thought
He will again be
well.
And she condemns his
inability to ignore the "foul" (Banquo's ghost) and put on a "fair" face as womanly
behaviour:
This is the very painting of your
fear.
...O, these flaws and
starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well
become
A woman's story at a winter's
fire....
Why do you make such faces? When all's
done,
You look but on a
stool.
Of course, by the end
of the play, Lady Macbeth's ability to put a "fair" face on what is "foul" completely
breaks down and she dies from her own mad
imaginings.
.
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