BANQUO
All's well.
I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
To you they have show'd some truth.
MACBETH
I think not of them: (I.ii.19-22)
Of course, Macbeth’s thought has been on nothing but the weird sisters, yet he would pretend otherwise. The consequence of such a big lie is that it severs the world into two opposinrealities and, as in Macbeth’s case, triggers the events that govern all tragedies: the hero’s conception of himself is at odds with how things actually are -- a la Jimmy Gatz. We ourselves are not unfamiliar with such tragedies, though ours be but minor and less comprehensive. This severance of reality results in a world of “fog and filthy air” that exclusively serves one’s own self-interest under the cover of darkness yet intersects with a second world of light, where folks mean what they say and say what they mean, where daggers are not insubstantial phantoms, where the pageant of the weird sisters is seen only on stage.
If we are honest with ourselves, we would acknowledge we often do not speak truthfully and learn too late that reality bites back. Here is an example of an amateurish self-deception.
Fool: But you did think of it, did you not?
Player: Think of what?
Fool: How they would applaud?
Player: No. Not at all.
Fool: Then you are a better man than I!
Player: I would not say so.
Fool: Nor would I.
Player: Would not what?
Fool: Say I am the better man.
Player: Of course, you said I was.
Fool: Yes, but I did not think it.
*****
Daisy says: Clearly you are a fool or at least one who plays the part. It’s time for bed.
Hugh: But Daisy, I invented you, You don’t really exist.
Daisy: I must be one of the weird sisters.
Hugh: Does that mean I'll be sleeping on the couch?