Overly Confident Macbeth

     After Macbeth has received warnings from the three apparitions, he only gains confidence.  In Act IV Scene I, Macbeth is on a mission to speak to the three witches, but they provide him answers through the three apparitions.  The first apparition, an armed head, informs Macbeth that he must beware of Macduff.  Macbeth is already aware of this fact, so he pushes it aside.  The second apparition, a bleeding baby, states that no man that is born of woman will be able to hurt Macbeth.  This sends Macbeth's confidence soaring because, as far as he knows, every man must be born of women.  The third apparition, a crowned child that is holding a tree, tells Macbeth that he has nothing to worry about until Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane hill.  Due to the fact that Birnam Wood is a forest, Macbeth's confidence continues to rise as he cannot imagine countless trees uprooting themselves in order to move to the location of his castle.  As Macbeth concludes that no man, including Macduff, can hurt him and that a whole forest cannot relocate in a matter of moments, he inherits a false sense of confidence.
     This can be reflected outside of the play in the abundance of confidence you take on when your teacher tells you to study a specific area of your work for an exam, but what actually turns out to be on the test is completely different.  When you begin to study and know that you can ace anything similar to what they commanded you to study, you are revealed to have a false sense of confidence when you receive the exam and it is far from the same.  Similarly in Macbeth, Macbeth knows that he will be okay if the apparitions mean what he believes, but he is revealed to have a false sense of confidence later in the play.