Misunderstanding and Double Meanings in Macbeth Shakespeare uses misunderstanding not to confuse but to convey more meaning or to leave dialogue and events in the play open-ended. The misunderstanding can be seen with witches and whenever they speak. The witches are themselves a vague collection of characters who speak in a puzzling, riddle-like manner. For example, when Macbeth visits them for the second time, they are very vague in predicting his future, intentionally confusing him and making him overly confident. An example of this enigmatic dialogue is this: All (three witches): Listen, but don't speak. Appearance: Be brave, be proud, and worry not who is vexed, who is agitated, or where the conspirators are: Macbeth shall never be defeated until; the great wood of Birnam to the high hill of Dunsinane will not come against him. Macbeth: This will never happen: he who can impress the forest, command the tree... This excerpt shows how the witches distort and play with Macbeth's mind and feelings. At the end of the lines of the Apparition, Macbeth is convinced that he cannot be killed by anyone, and so his confidence grows to the point of boiling and almost breaking with it. It also shows Shakespeare's use of equivocation and how, unless certain lines are studied, their true meaning, however vague, cannot be seen or understood. The quoted phrase, "beautiful is ugly and ugly is beautiful" is used frequently, the phrase itself is an oxymoron. At the beginning of the play the reader sees Macbeth as the hero because he saved all of Scotland from the Norse. Duncan, honoring Macbeth, says: "You are owed more than anyone can pay." (Act 1, scene) About halfway through the play the reader suddenly begins to pity Macbeth, slowly realizing his encroaching madness for what it is, a downward spiral of death and greater mistakes. Finally, at the end of the play, the reader's opinion of Macbeth shifts more towards hatred and the feeling that Macbeth is unmistakably evil. As the second witch said: From the prick of my thumbs, comes something wicked: (-Act 4, scene 1) This is Macbeth's righteous to foul story in a flash. There are also Lady Macbeth, Macduff, Malcolm and Donalbain, and perhaps even Banquo. The development of each of these characters follows the "right is bad and bad is right" format"..