Technically, the witches never deceive Macbeth--they tell him the truth, and he is the one who misinterprets their statements. Further, one of the motives of deception is personal gain, and the witches are just harbingers of future events and have nothing to gain from deceiving Macbeth. However, some might argue that the witches mislead Macbeth into believing ideas about the prophecies that are not true. For example, in Act 4 when the witches tell Macbeth...
Technically, the witches never deceive Macbeth--they tell him the truth, and he is the one who misinterprets their statements. Further, one of the motives of deception is personal gain, and the witches are just harbingers of future events and have nothing to gain from deceiving Macbeth. However, some might argue that the witches mislead Macbeth into believing ideas about the prophecies that are not true. For example, in Act 4 when the witches tell Macbeth to beware Macduff, the prophecy seems clear, and Macbeth makes plans to murder Macduff and remove the threat. However, the next two prophecies require a more creative interpretation, so Macbeth practically dismisses them: he believes that everyone has been born of a woman and that Birnam Wood cannot uproot itself to climb the hill to Dunsinane. The witches do not deceive Macbeth--later in Act 5, both these prophecies turn out to be true. However, the indirect and abstract nature of the prophecies might cause one to argue that the witches were in fact being deceptive.
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