From the beginning of Shakespeare's "Macbeth," there is a perversion of gender roles: The witches are bearded and Macbeth expresses confusion over whether they are male or female. Critic Robert N. Watson states,
Shakespeare portrays Macbeth's crimes, from first to last, as costly violations of the procreative cycle.
The sexless witches stir a broth of eyes and other parts of animals used to enhance one's procreative prowess. This suggestion of procreation then extends to the description of Scotland as the motherland and Macbeth, who "carved out his passage" (I,ii,19) as the heroic son. And, it is King Duncan who receives Macbeth as a son, praising his valor:
Thy praises in his kingdom's greata defense,/And poured them down before him. (I,iii,98-99)
In Act I, Scene v, Macbeth writes of the prediction of the witches to Lady Macbeth, indicating that he is tempted by the preternatural world. Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to kill Duncan, an act much like the mother urging her son to usurp the throne. That this is somewhat Oedipal in nature has been propounded by many a critic.
Thus, all three of these forces contribute to the violations of the procreative cycle: unnatural forces, a man who sees a "dagger" before him and an opportunity for rebirth as the new king that his wife, who "unsexes" herself and urges him as a perverse mother to kill the king so that her "son" can have the throne.
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