Macbeth • Act 1, Scene 1 • All
“Fair is foul, and foul is fair:” — Fair Is Foul, and Foul Is Fair Meaning
The witches invert moral and descriptive terms to announce that appearances will be deceptive: what seems fair may actually be foul, and vice versa. They voice a paradox that signals moral confusion and atmospheric ambiguity. The line registers a deliberate reversal in values and perception, suggesting the play will blur surface impressions and hidden realities.
Plain-English meaning
Good is bad, and bad is good:
Who says it, and what is happening?
Speakers: the three witches together, at the opening of the play. Locally they summon familiars ('Graymalkin', 'Paddock calls') and declare 'Fair is foul, and foul is fair' before departing. This brief incantation sets a mood of fog, filth, and moral inversion. The moment matters because it introduces the play's atmosphere of equivocation and suggests that appearances and reality will be unsettled from the outset—preparing the audience to expect deception and blurred ethical boundaries.
Language and literary analysis
The line’s tight paradox—'Fair is foul, and foul is fair'—works like a chant, its chiasmic structure and repeated antonyms creating a sense of reversal that is both linguistic and thematic. The witches’ collective voice makes it a chorus-like proclamation, and the immediately following image 'Hover through the fog and filthy air' pairs sonic alliteration and sibilance with murky visual imagery. That coupling of sound and image intensifies ambiguity: fog and filth obscure perception while the chant redefines moral terms. As a dramatic device, the line functions as a thematic signpost, marking the play’s preoccupation with appearance versus reality and preparing the audience for characters and events that will complicate ethical clarity.
How to use the quote in an essay
Use this line to argue that Macbeth’s world is organized around equivocation: its chiasmus and repetition announce that moral distinctions will be overturned. In an essay, link the chant and the fog imagery to scenes where characters misread signs or are misled, using the witches’ pronouncement as a lens for interpreting deceptive appearances throughout the play.
Questions about this quote
Do the witches mean everything will be wrong?
The witches articulate a rule of inversion rather than claiming every event will be mistaken. Their paradox announces that value and appearance can be reversed—what looks favorable may harbor danger. It signals a world where moral clarity is unstable and where judgments based on appearance risk error.
How does the line prepare the audience?
By delivering a succinct paradox and coupling it with fog imagery, the line primes the audience for uncertainty. It establishes the play’s aesthetic of equivocation, encourages suspicion of surface meanings, and foreshadows the ethical and perceptual confusions that will drive characters’ choices and tragic outcomes.
Read this line in the complete side-by-side scene. · Read the scene revision guide.
Original text source: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, MIT HTML edition. MIT states that its HTML versions of the plays are placed in the public domain.