What are these, / So wither’d, and so wild in their attire, / That look not like the inhabitants o’ th’ earth, / And yet are on’t?—Live you? or are you aught / That man may question?
Act I, Scene 3 · Banquo
Context
Banquo reacts with confusion upon first seeing the witches on the heath, questioning whether they are human, alive, or even real.
Analysis
Banquo's piled-up questions—five in quick succession—enact his struggle to fit the witches into any recognizable category; each question tries and fails to contain them. The phrase "look not like the inhabitants o' th' earth, / And yet are on't" creates a logical paradox that can't be resolved, positioning the witches as creatures who break the rules of both reason and nature. His inability to describe them except through negatives leaves them as blanks the audience (and Macbeth) must fill in with their own fears.
Essay Tip
Support a thesis that the witches' power comes partly from their categorical slipperiness—because they can't be pinned down or understood, they become screens onto which Macbeth projects his own desires, making their prophecies seem more significant than they objectively are.