Macbeth Quote Analysis

The Second Witch answers the First Witch's question about when they will meet again, specifying that their reunion will occur after the ongoing battle has concluded.

The paradox 'lost and won' collapses binary opposition into a single outcome, suggesting that in this world winning and losing are not opposites but simultaneous conditions. By describing the same battle with contradictory terms, Shakespeare introduces the play's central moral confusion: if one side's victory is another's defeat, then any judgment of good or bad becomes unstable. The parallelism of the two clauses locks the contradiction into a chant-like rhythm that feels inevitable rather than puzzling.

Support a thesis that the witches don't simply predict events but speak in a way that erases moral distinctions—this quote shows how their language makes contradictory outcomes sound natural, preparing audiences to accept Macbeth's later inability to tell right from wrong.