I pull in resolution; and begin / To doubt th’ equivocation of the fiend, / That lies like truth. “Fear not, till Birnam wood / Do come to Dunsinane;” and now a wood / Comes toward Dunsinane.—
Act V, Scene 5 · Macbeth
Context
After threatening to hang the messenger, Macbeth realizes the witches' prophecy is coming true in a way he never anticipated. He quotes back their original prophecy and confronts the fact that Birnam Wood is indeed coming to Dunsinane.
Analysis
The phrase 'equivocation of the fiend, / That lies like truth' identifies the witches' linguistic trick—they told literal truth in a way designed to be misunderstood, making language itself a weapon. Macbeth finally grasps that he's been defeated not by false prophecy but by his own failure to imagine how words could be true in unexpected ways. This moment of clarity comes too late to save him, positioning readers to see that his real vulnerability was never fate but interpretive overconfidence.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that the play's real concern isn't whether the witches control fate, but how ambition makes us hear what we want to hear—Macbeth wasn't tricked by lies but by his own refusal to consider alternative meanings until the trap had already sprung.