The "Threes" of Macbeth 1.1

Bill Long 11/27/06

A Perfectly Divine Number--For Perfect Evil

When I wrote a preliminary, exploratory essay on "threes" in nature a few years ago, I received in the mail a huge laminated document, about 20''X30'', filled in the smallest type imaginable with hundreds, if not thousands, of "threes" in nature or human thought. The author of that list, Herb O. Buckland, is a "triophile extraordinaire," and has been cited in a few Internet articles on "threes." Scholars have found threes in a number of unusual places in nature and literature; one of the charming titles I found, for example, was "People in Threes Going Up in Smoke and Other Triplicities in Russian Literature and Culture," by Lee B. Croft. Three has been recognized as the first sacred number, the number of God, the number of the Western monotheistic religions, the number of divine order in the world. However, as I will show in this and the next essay, Shakespeare used the language and rhythm of "threes" in Macbeth 1.1. to turn the concept of threes on its head. Rather than being a sign that all is right with the world, the "threes" in the conduct and mouth of the Weird Sisters show the moral confusion of the universe. We are prepared by Shakespeare, then, to enter into a world of confusion and pain, of appearance v. reality, where an ordered world becomes a disordered world, though often retaining the patina of order. Before we get to Shakespeare, however, let's have some fun with threes.

Threes in Rhetoric

Allen H. Merriam has written an article entitled "Words and Numbers: Mathematical Dimensions of Rhetoric," Southern Communication Journal 55 (1990), 337-54 in which he argues that "three" is the dominant numerical motif of rhetoric in the English language. Though he shows that four, five, seven, ten and twelve have also been viewed as auspicious in human cultures, three is especially so. But more important for Merriam is the way that threes are used rhetorically. Here is a partial list of threes in English.

Then, in education we have "reading, writing, and arithmetic." Stories have a "beginning, middle, and end." We view life in the triple perspective of "past, present, future." Sociologists talk about "lower, middle, or upper" classes. Even in court we make witnesses swear to "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." Enough of these threes as rhetorical strategy.

Herb O. Buckland's Threes

Before getting to Macbeth 1.1, I want to pause to acknowledge and review a few of Herb's outstanding, and sometimes outlandish, list of threes. Let's start with a funny one. A three-part phrase said by women about men. "Men are like parking spaces. They either are occupied, in a handicapped zone, or way out there." He notes that the three historical degrees are Bachelors, Masters, Doctorate; the three types of public schools are Elementary, Middle (Jr. High), High School; three work divisions are Day, Swing, Graveyard; the three vows taken on by a priest are poverty, chastity, obedience; three Greek column types are Doric, Ionic, Corinthian; the three Christian virtues are Faith, Hope, and Charity; Jesus talked of himself as the "Way, the Truth, and the Life;" and many, many others from realms not only of human thought but of science and personal observation.

On To Macbeth

Whether or not the universe is made up of threes, or the human mind is structured to think it triploid patters, I think we are on solid ground when we say that uses of threes in literature indicates that the author is trying to tell us that things are orderly or stable. Just as there is heaven, earth and hell, ruled over by a just, righteous and good God (according to the three Western monotheistic religions), so a threefold literary pattern means things are "under control." Thus it is striking to me that when Shakespeare opens Macbeth, with its 11-line first scene, he uses repeated patterns of threes. However, because of the last two lines of the scene ("Fair is foul, and foul is fair./ Hover through the fog and filthy air," 1.1.10-11), we see that the threes will be used to precipitate moral confusion rather than moral clarity.

The next essay explores this theme in greater detail in 1.1.

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