As Macbeth begins to regain his calm once again, he asks his wife about the absence of Macduff (127). Because Macduff did not attend his coronation or the feast, Macbeth suspects that Macduff may be his enemy. Macbeth’s suspicious nature also causes him to place spies in all of the houses of all of the Scottish lords: “There’s not a one of them but in his house I keep a servant fee’d” ((130-31). That is, Macbeth pays a fee or salary to various servants to spy on the Scottish lords. Macbeth feels that he can trust nobody. The careful reader should note that Macbeth has contradicted himself. Earlier he had stated that his fears would end with the death of Banquo and his son. But, instead, Macbeth fears one enemy after another.
There is no end to these fears.
Macbeth plans to speak to the witches again (132). He realizes now that his life will never get better: “I am bent to know by the worst means the worst” (133-34). The words “by the worst means” suggest the supernatural and evil source of the witches. Macbeth intends to ask the witches what greater evils will occur and what greater evils he will need to commit in order to keep himself safely on the throne.
Macbeth sees only evil in his future, but he also believes there is no turning back:
I am in blood
Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er. (135-37)
Macbeth uses a metaphor of a large and forceful river here. A swimmer attempting to get across and going more than half the distance would find it too difficult (tedious) to turn back. Macbeth is suggesting that he has committed so much evil already that it would be too difficult or perhaps even impossible for him to return to being good. He thus no longer thinks that goodness (and the reward of Heaven) is an option for him. And, so, his evil will only get worse as time progresses. Of course, from the Christian point of view, Macbeth is mistaken. Christians believe that even the worst sinner can ask forgiveness of God and that God will be merciful.
But Macbeth has turned his back on Christianity.
The reader should note that the fifth scene is poetically different from the earlier scenes. Once again this is a scene involving witches, and once again the scene contains a high degree of spectacle for the entertainment of the audience. The lines are shorter (eight syllables each) and rhyme is used throughout the scene (for example, Macbeth-death in lines 4-5, and charms-harms in lines 6-7). The witches again speak in a kind of chanting voice.
The conflict in this scene involves Hecate (an ancient fertility and moon goddess and often associated as the goddess or chief of witches) versus the other three witches. Hecate is angry with the other three witches because she “was never called to bear my part” (8). In other words, she was not involved in the fun that the witches were having.
Hecate further complains that the witches appear to have been helping a man who is troublesome (“wayward son”: 11), angry (“spiteful and wrathful”: 12), and selfish (“loves for his own ends”: 13). Hecate is thus stating that Macbeth does not deserve any special favors. So, to ensure that Macbeth does not prosper or receive any happiness in the future, Hecate will use her dark magic to “draw him on to his confusion” (29) so that Macbeth will act in such a way that he will cause his own fall. Hecate will confuse Macbeth so that he thinks he is safe and secure in his position as king. But “security is mortals’ chiefest enemy” (32-33). Because Macbeth will think he is safe, he will not take the proper precautions to protect himself.
This scene is significant because it foreshadows what will occur later in the play. More importantly, it contributes to the symbolism of the witches as being agents of fate. In Christian thinking, fate is an agent or servant of God. But in this tale there does not appear to be anybody in complete control of fate. The three witches must follow the direction of Hecate, but Hecate did not know about the three witches helping Macbeth earlier in the play. In other words, destiny in relation to the character of Macbeth was something that occurred without Hecate’s knowledge or action. Thus, fate is a force that is even beyond or superior to Hecate. Hecate and the three witches do play a role in the fate or destiny of Macbeth, but there is a greater force that controls them: fate. As Shakespeare indicates in many of his works, fate is a mysterious force that man cannot control or ever fully understand.
The idea that fate is fickle also appears in this scene. During the Middle Ages, destiny was often referred to as the Wheel of Fortune. In other words, fate is a device that is a spinning circle (like a roulette wheel in a casino) which stops and lands on either bad luck or good luck for any individual. But more often, the wheel gives bad luck. Macbeth had been receiving good luck up to this point (he killed Duncan without being caught, he became king, and he eliminated Banquo). But now his luck will turn to bad. Good luck comes and goes, but it never lasts for long.
Hecate gives an apparent reason for wanting to harm Macbeth: he is selfish (he loves himself but does not love the witches: line 13). Literally, Macbeth is not a friend of the witches; so the witches have no reason to help him. But the line works symbolically as well. Fate can be a friend or enemy to a man; but the reason for it going one way or the other is unclear, illogical, and unknowable to mankind.