Act 1 Scene 1 Bipolar Witches

In Act 1 Scene 1 of Macbeth the witches appear and act crazy. They are speaking in what seems to be opposites. One of them says, "When the battle's lost and won." And they all say "Fair is foul and foul is fair." 

The world is full of binaries: Men and women, night and day, hot and cold... the list just keeps going. But between binaries, there are a limitless number of in-betweens. Between hot and cold are infinitely many temperatures that range from cool, luke-warm, warm, uncomfortable, boiling, burn human skin, cook a brisket, sear a steak, melt metal... I can't list them all. Even men and women are no longer binary: We have a multitude of gender and sexual variations that fall in-between the two polar opposites. Macbeth the play is going to be exploring the in-between throughout--mostly between GOOD and EVIL. Macbeth the character is at times good and at times evil--He's somewhere in-between. 

So when the witches say things like "When the battle's lost and won," they understand that in any battle, someone wins and someone loses, but it is so much more complicated than this. What if you win the battle but you lose most of your soldiers? Is this a true win? What if you lose, but you're only injured and allowed to go back to your family and you live happily ever after? Is this a true loss? 

"Fair is foul and foul is fair" is a MAJOR theme in Macbeth. Things that might seem good end up being terrible. Things that are seemingly terrible turn out to be advantageous. This is one of the many reasons why Macbeth is such an awesome play. Enjoy.