Lady Macbeth

• Lady Macbeth


  • More ambitious and ruthless than her husband Macbeth
  • Plots to murder King Duncan upon hearing of the witches' prophecy
  • Goads Macbeth into the evil deed despite his hesitance
  • Gives the guards drugged wine
  • Lays out the bloody daggers
  • Comforts her husband in his guilt afterwards
  • Nervously tries to calm Macbeth down when he sees Banquo's ghost
  • Dismisses their guests
  • Guilt soon turns her mad
  • Tormented by nightmares, she sleepwalks as she tries to wash out the invisible bloodstains on her hands
  • Dies offstage in the final act, a supposed suicide
• Lady Macbeth: 'Out, damned spot!'
• Macduff


  Thane of Fife, loyal to King Duncan
• Macduff is the first to discover King Duncan's dead body and never believes it was the servants who killed him
• Macduff's actions


  1. Flees to England

  2. Tries to find King Duncan's son Malcolm

  3. Persuades Malcolm to lead an army against Macbeth
• Macbeth has Macduff's wife and children murdered

  Macduff is full of grief and revenge
• Macduff challenges Macbeth one-to-one and slays him
• Macduff


  A child of a caesarean birth, thus fulfils the witches' prophecy that no man of woman born would harm Macbeth
• Macduff: 'O horror, horror, horror! / Tongue nor heart cannot conceive nor name thee'