Hyperbole is intended exaggeration or over-emphasis, usually to make a point or to signify the importance of something. It is not meant to be understood literally. A good example would be,"I told you a thousand times to do your homework," when the speaker has only mentioned it a few times. The speaker either wants to stress the fact that the issue had been brought up many times or to convey how important doing homework is.
In this scene, Macbeth returns to the witches so that they can further predict his future. He uses hyperbole to indicate how determined he is to hear their prognostications.
I conjure you, by that which you profess,
Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:...Even till destruction sicken; answer me
To what I ask you.
He insists that he does not care about the consequences or circumstances, no matter how desperate they may be, the witches have to answer him and inform him about what and how they know about his destiny. The witches comply and call up several apparitions which each either predict or warn Macbeth. The first apparition cries out that he should be wary of Macduff. The second apparition states:
Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth.
The apparition encourages him to be just as ruthless, determined and courageous as he had been thus far for nothing which is given birth to by a woman will harm Macbeth. Macbeth is obviously thrilled by this advice, for he believes that it guarantees his invincibility. What he does not realize though, is that the witches are masters of paradox and equivocation and do not always mean what they say, either directly or indirectly.
This prediction exaggerates Macbeth's power and the expression 'none of woman born' should not be interpreted literally. He discovers the folly of his belief later in Act 5, scene 8, when he faces the angry and vengeful Macduff in battle and tells him that he does not wish to engage him in a fight for he is 'charmed.'
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield,
To one of woman born.
Macduff rejects his assertion with contempt and tells the gullible tyrant:
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.
Macbeth is shocked at this, for it means that Macduff was not naturally born but had been cut out of his mother's womb prematurely. The tyrant then concludes that he had been misled.
The third apparition informs Macbeth:
Be lion-mettled, proud; and take no care
Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are:
Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill
Shall come against him.
The statement here is just as hyperbolic as the previous one and Macbeth, once again, interprets the apparition's words literally. He believes that this confirms his invincibility since it is impossible for Great Birnam wood to march up the hill towards his castle. He finds out later, though, that that is exactly what happens since Malcolm had instructed his troops to each cut a bough from trees in Birnam wood and hold it in front of them to camouflage their numbers. It does then seem as if the wood is marching up the hill. When Macbeth is informed of this fact in Act 5, scene 5, he is quite angry. A messenger tells him:
As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
The wood began to move.
He realizes that the witches had tricked him and he states:
...I pull in resolution, and begin
To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
That lies like truth: 'Fear not, till Birnam wood
Do come to Dunsinane:...
In the end, Macbeth is a victim of his own gullible foolishness. Macduff kills him in battle and beheads the tyrant, thus concluding a period of bloodthirsty and tyrannical rule.
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