Macbeth

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1. 
   cybil Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   In this scene we see how the witches have tricked Macbeth with the apparition of a child crowned with a tree in his hand. Malcolm says:

   Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
   And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow
   The numbers of our host, and make discovery
   Err in report of us.

   Malcolm is directing the soldiers to camouflage themselves with tree branches so that Macbeth won't know how many soldiers are attacking the castle. With the branches before them as the soldiers move up Dunsinane hill, the group looks as though the forest is moving and thus foreshadows Macbeth's defeat, just as the witches predicted. Macbeth, of course, believed there was no way a forest could move so he took false comfort in the witches' prediction.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/act-v-summary-analysis

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   Posted by cybil on Monday April 7, 2008 at 5:21 PM
   
   

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