Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak; / Augurs, and understood relations, have / By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth / The secret’st man of blood.—
Act III, Scene 4 · Macbeth
Context
Macbeth reflects on supernatural and natural omens that have historically revealed hidden murderers.
Analysis
Macbeth animates the inanimate—'Stones...move,' 'trees...speak'—populating the world with witnesses. The accumulation of birds ('magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks') creates a sense of nature as surveillance network, with even common scavengers becoming agents of exposure. The archaic diction ('Augurs,' 'understood relations') lends the passage a prophetic weight, as if Macbeth is quoting fate itself while standing inside it.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that Macbeth experiences the world as hostile and accusing—his personification of nature reveals paranoia so deep that every stone and bird becomes a potential informant against him.