ACT III - Scene V Macbeth

In Act 3, Scene 5, the three witches meet Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft and their commanding mistress, on a stormy heath. Hecate angrily rebukes them for dealing with Macbeth without her knowledge or permission, calling him a "wayward son" who acts only for his own selfish ends. She then outlines her plan: the witches must meet her at the pit of Acheron the next morning, where Macbeth will come seeking knowledge of his destiny. Hecate will use a magical drop caught from the moon to conjure illusions that give Macbeth a fatal sense of overconfidence. She departs when offstage voices sing "Come away, come away."

Hecate is the goddess of witchcraft and the commanding mistress of the three weird sisters in Macbeth. Rooted in classical mythology as a deity associated with the underworld, crossroads, and sorcery, she appears in Act 3, Scene 5 to assert her authority over the witches and to orchestrate the next phase of Macbeth's downfall. Her role underscores the idea that larger supernatural forces are at work beyond what the three witches alone represent. Scholars generally attribute her scenes to Thomas Middleton rather than Shakespeare, but dramatically she serves as the architect of the deceptive prophecies that destroy Macbeth.

Hecate is angry because the three witches approached Macbeth with prophecies and "riddles and affairs of death" without first consulting her—even though she is "the mistress of your charms, the close contriver of all harms." Her authority as their leader was completely bypassed. She also considers Macbeth an unworthy subject of their powers, calling him a "wayward son" who is "spiteful and wrathful" and who "loves for his own ends, not for you." In her view, Macbeth exploits the witches' knowledge for personal gain without any loyalty to the dark forces aiding him.

When Hecate declares that "security is mortals' chiefest enemy" at the end of Act 3, Scene 5, she means that overconfidence—a false sense of safety and invincibility—is the most dangerous thing a human being can possess. The word "security" in Elizabethan English carried the meaning of complacency or carelessness born from feeling safe. Hecate's plan is to use magical illusions to make Macbeth believe he is untouchable, so that he will "spurn fate, scorn death, and bear his hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear." This line captures the central theme of the scene and foreshadows Macbeth's reckless behavior in Acts IV and V, where misplaced trust in the witches' new prophecies leads directly to his death.

Most scholars believe Act 3, Scene 5 was not written by Shakespeare but was instead interpolated by Thomas Middleton, a contemporary playwright. Several pieces of evidence support this view: the scene's verse style differs from Shakespeare's typical blank verse in the play, using a simpler rhyming couplet pattern; the song cue "Come away, come away" matches a song found in Middleton's play The Witch; and the entire scene can be removed without any disruption to the plot. Despite the disputed authorship, the scene has appeared in virtually all editions of Macbeth since the First Folio of 1623 and adds dramatic texture by introducing Hecate and reinforcing the theme of supernatural manipulation.