Meet the Characters

Macbeth

Macbeth is the main character of the play, obviously because the play is name The Tragedy of Macbeth. He is a young Scottish general and he is also known as the Thane of Glamis, who is led to have wicked thoughts by the prophecies of the three witches, especially after their prophecy that he will be made Thane of Cawdor has come true. Macbeth is a brave soldier and a powerful man, but he has made bad decisions throughout the play. He is easily tempted and convinced into becoming a murderer just to fulfill his ambitions to the throne. However Macbeth was not always the type of guy to murder, there was some help into him being portrayed to murder. Once he commits his first crime of killing Duncan and is crowned King of Scotland, he embarks on further atrocities with increasing ease. Killing Duncan was not enough for Macbeth, Macbeth did not want anyone intruding. Those who he felt would come in the way of his throne were also murdered by Macbeth making him seem more and more guilty. 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

Lady Macbeth, the name speaks for itself. She is Macbeth’s beautiful and ambitious wife. She is the type of woman who uses lust to get what she wants such as power and the position of Macbeth's queen. In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth seems to be more stronger and ruthless than what she becomes in the end. Once she finds out that her husband will one day become king, she begins to plan a way for Macbeth to speed the process up of becoming king. Lady Macbeth suggest that Macbeth kills the king, who at the time is Duncan, but she does not think that her husband is man enough to go through with the plans. After the violence and killing begins, Lady Macbeth  goes from being the victim to being guilty of her task and plans.. Her conscience begins to affect her to  an extent that she eventually commits suicide. Interestingly, she and Macbeth are presented as being deeply in love, and many of Lady Macbeth’s speeches imply that her influence over her husband is primarily sexual. While she was seeing the doctor Macbeth did not even check up on her as if she was his wife. Their joint alienation from the world, occasioned by their partnership in crime, seems to strengthen the attachment that they feel to each another.

Witches

The witches consist of three “black and midnight weird sisters” who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms, spells, and prophecies. These sisters do and plan everything for a reason. They planned to tell Macbeth truths that eventually led to his death. They speak on the truth, but not the full truth. Each prophecy had a meaning, a truth, and an outcome already planned before anything has been done. Without any real motive, their speech is full of paradox and equivocation. Their predictions boosted Macbeth's ego in to murder Duncan, to order the deaths of Banquo and his son, and to blindly believe in his own immortality. Aside from the fact that they are servants of Hecate, we know little about their place in the cosmos. 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. Their true identities continue to remain anonymous.  

Duncan

Duncan was known as the King of Scotland. Duncan is the model of a virtuous and farsighted ruler; he also was a kind and trustworthy older man. Duncan was just a weepier than you might expect from a noble warrior and king. Since Duncan was a kind man, he did not expect for Macbeth to betray him. Both before and after the regicide, it is Duncan's particularly virtuous nature that enhances Macbeth's sense of guilt. 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. Although King Duncan was old, he fought a strong battle and is still known as the best King of Scotland. King Duncan has taught many to not trust everyone who claims they are your friend, even if they are working for you. 

Malcolm

Malcolm is the elder son of King Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order following Macbeth’s reign of terror. He also is newly appointed the Prince of Cumberland, as well as  being next in line to be the king of Scotland. Malcolm becomes a serious challenge to Macbeth with Macduff’s aid . Prior to this, he appears weak and uncertain of his own power, as when he and Donalbain flee Scotland after their father’s murder.

Banquo

Banquo is 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. In addition to embodying Macbeth’s guilt for killing Banquo, the ghost also reminds Macbeth that he did not emulate Banquo’s reaction to the witches’ prophecy.

Macduff

Macduff is a Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth’s kingship from the beginning. 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.