Macbeth, you mad?

When I started reading Act 3, I got a feeling that the rest of the play might center around this idea that Macbeth's throne is not secure, which got me wondering - why doesn't he think about this before he murders Duncan? I guess Duncan's murder is so rushed on purpose; if it wasn't rushed, maybe somebody would have had the common sense to dissect the witches' riddles. The witches' original prophecy claims that Macbeth will be king and Banquo's family will eventually take the throne. Macbeth must only pay attention to his side of the prophecy. He reasons that the only way he can become king is if he kills the current one. If that's so true, how does he not reason that Banquo or someone must eventually kill him for the throne as well? I don't know how this tragedy ends, but if I had to make a guess...

I think Macbeth is going to die.

Buuut I'm not here to make prophecies. That's what the witches are for! Macbeth goes back to the witches in Act 4 to seek more guidance, and I've got to admit, I really like Shakespeare's version of traditional witches here.

"Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,

Witches' mummy, maw and gulf

Of the ravined salt-sea shark,

Root of hemlock digged i' th' dark,

Liver of blaspheming Jew,

Gall of goat and slips of yew

Slivered in the moon’s eclipse,

Nose of Turk and Tartar’s lips,

Finger of birth-strangled babe

Ditch-delivered by a drab,

Make the gruel thick and slab.

Add thereto a tiger’s chaudron,

For the ingredients of our cauldron."

(Act 4, Scene 1, Lines 22-34)

Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble indeed. I mean, these bitches throw a Jewish person's liver and the finger of a baby who was born in a ditch to a prostitute and strangled to death into their stew. Shakespeare...what kind of sick were you...

Anyways, the witches show Macbeth a floating head, a bloody child, a crowned child, and a procession of eight kings where one holds a mirror and is followed by Banquo's ghost. I'm not too sure that I could unravel the meanings behind these apparitions accurately, but I'm curious to see how they play out. I'm especially curious as to how Macbeth is expected to fear Macduff yet "none of woman born shall harm [him]" (Lines 82-83). I think the witches ordered the prophecies that way on purpose so that Macbeth dismisses the first prophecy by understanding the second and concluding that he must kill Macduff: "Then live, Macduff. What need I fear of thee? But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live..." (Lines 85-87). Gosh, these witches really are good at mind games. I like it.

Macbeth. William Shakespeare.