Macbeth:

• Macbeth is a Scottish general and the Thane of Glamis.

• Led to wicked thoughts by the prophecies of the three witches.

• Macbeth is a brave soldier and a powerful man, but he is not a virtuous one.

• He is easily tempted into murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne.

• Ultimately, Macbeth proves himself better suited to the battlefield than to political intrigue, because he lacks the skills necessary to rule without being a tyrant.

• His response to every problem is violence and murder.

LADY MACBETH

• Macbeth’s wife, a deeply ambitious woman who lusts for power and position.

• In the beginning, she seems to be the stronger and more ruthless, as she urges her husband to kill Duncan and seize the crown.

• After the bloodshed begins, however, Lady Macbeth falls victim to guilt and madness to an even greater degree than her husband.

• Her conscience affects her to such an extent that she eventually commits suicide.

King Duncan

• The good King of Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition for the crown, murders.

• Duncan is the model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler.

• His death symbolizes the destruction of an order in Scotland that can be restored only when Duncan’s line, in the person of Malcolm, once more occupies the throne.

THE THREE WITCHES

• Three “midnight hags” who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms, spells, and prophecies.

• Their predictions prompt him to murder Duncan, to order the deaths of Banquo and his son.

• In some ways, they resemble the mythological Fates, who impersonally weave the threads of human destiny.

• They clearly take a perverse delight in using their knowledge of the future to toy with and destroy human beings.
  

BANQUO

• The brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne.

• Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into action.

• In a sense, Banquo’s character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder.

• Appropriately, then, it is Banquo’s ghost—and not Duncan’s—that haunts Macbeth.

  
  MACDUFF

• A Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the start.

• He eventually becomes a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth.

• The crusade’s mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and young son.

  
  MALCOLM

• The son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order following Macbeth’s reign of terror.

• Malcolm becomes a serious challenge to Macbeth with Macduff’s aid (and the support of England).

• Prior to this, he appears weak and uncertain of his own power, as when he and Donalbain flee Scotland after their father’s murder.