A ‘tragic hero’ – being a great man, who falls because of his fatal flaw: ambition.
Duncan’s ‘valiant cousin’
Introduced as the Thane of Glamis and is rewarded Thane of Cawdor for fighting valiantly and defeating the enemy; takes the Crown to become king of Scotland.
Macbeth is recognised by all for his courageous nature: ‘For brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name’ - The Captain.
Lady Macbeth believes he is too good – too kind and too soft – to do what is necessary to become king: ‘yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way’.
Banquo believes Macbeth to be deceitful: ‘Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, / As the weird women promised, and, I fear, / Thou play’dst most foully for’t’
Again, Malcolm, the rightful King, has the last say on Macbeth, referring to him as ‘this dead butcher’.
Shakespeare does not present Macbeth as a wholly bad person – he began the play with admirable qualities but, under the influence of the witches and his wife, he changed.
Thus, you need to balance his final condition – the treacherous, mass murderer under the sway of supernatural forces – with his earlier and finer qualities: his love of his wife, his sensitive imagination and bravery.
By the end, Macbeth is still brave: he insists ‘I’ll fight, till from my bones my flesh be hacked. Give me my armour’ (5:3) and ‘Yet I will try the last’ (5:8), reminding us of how heroic and courageous he is.
God is good; the witches are evil; Macbeth is simply human. He is tempted, as is Banquo (and Duncan, through language) and, yet, they don’t succumb.
First description: ‘for brave Macbeth – well he deserves that name’ (captain speaking of him to Duncan, after his defeating the rebel forces).
Final description: ‘hell-hound’ and ‘villain’ by Macduff, before Macduff defeats him in battle.
Act 1: described as brave and valiant. In Act 2, Scene 1, during the dagger soliloquy, he personifies murder, passing the blame for his forthcoming actions, portraying himself as a coward.
Lady Macbeth later calls him a coward for refusing to kill the king. Macbeth is tragic partly because he comes to depends upon the witches’ information.
Act 1: Ambitious, brave, loyal
Act 2: Anxious, cowardly, paranoid
Act 3: Insular, merciless, paranoid
Act 4: Irrational, arrogant, isolated.
Act 5: Fearful, emotionless, brave.
His characteristics, the witches and Lady Macbeth cause him to do what he does.
His characteristics - particularly ambition, which is personified by Shakespeare to give the impression that it is a part of Macbeth that he cannot control.
The Witches – twofold: their prophecies provide Macbeth with ideas that he chose to act upon; through language, it becomes evident that the witches may be channelling Macbeth or controlling him through supernatural means. Regardless of which is believed, it’s ultimately irrelevant: the witches influence Macbeth, supernaturally or naturally, into committing a terrible deed.
Lady Macbeth – questions his masculinity and his courage, referring to him as a coward and, essentially, bullying him into acting on the witches’ prophecy. For Macbeth, bravery is extremely important and it is always the appeals to courage which tempt him – to him, courage and bravery are what make a man.
A Scottish general and the Thane of Glamis. He fights valiantly for his country, and is highly regarded by everyone, including the king.
Macbeth is led to evil thoughts after hearing the Weird Sisters' prophecies - urged on by his wife, he murders Duncan, employs three men to murder Banquo, and has Macuff's family slaughtered.
In the play's finale, he is killed by Macduff.
"So fair and foul a day I have not seen"
"If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me"
"Stars, hide your fires / Let not light see my black and deep desires"
"My dearest partner of greatness" (talking of Lady Macbeth)
"Yet do I (LM) fear thy nature / Is is too full o'th' milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way"
"Here's here in double trust: / First, I am his kinsman and his subject, / Strong both against the deed./ Then as his host"
"We will proceed no further in this business"
"I dare do all that may become a man,/ Who dares do more, is none"
"Away, and mock the time with the fairest show: False face must hide what the false heart doth know"
"Is this a dagger which I see before me,/ The handle toward my hand?"
"I heard a voice cry, 'sleep no more./ Macbeth doth murder sleep' "