Question

In a response of three to five sentences, explain how Macbeth changes throughout the scene in this lesson. Use the lines from Group A, when he first hears the weird sisters' greeting, and Group B, the aside he makes after he learns he has been named Thane of Cawdor, to support your answer. You must cite from and explain these lines in your response.

Group A
By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be King
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor.

Group B
[Aside.] Two truths are told,
As happy prologues to the swelling act
Of the imperial (royal) theme-…
If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
Against the use of nature? Present fears
Are less than horrible imaginings:
My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that function
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is
But what is not.

Answer 1

When Macbeth hears the sisters talk to him as if he were Thane of Cawdor, and also he's called that from the future king. He is shocked and speechless. But when he learns that he was actually named Thane of Cawdor, he decides to accept it and believes the witches are right on whatever they say. So, he starts to imagine that he can murder the King. He knows that is just his imagination or a fantasy, so it's not really important to him.