Macbeth:characters

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.

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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.

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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.

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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. \n

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.

  \n 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.

  \n 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. \n

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