Macbeth
Character Analysis
• Macbeth’s character
develops as the play Macbeth
progresses. In the beginning
he is a successful general, a
man of action, described as
noble, valiant, and worthy.
• We learn that he is
ambitious, and prepared to
accept ill-gotten gains as
long as his own conscience
is clear. His fatal weakness,
then, is that he thinks ends
and means can be
separated.
• Lady Macbeth plays on his weakness and persuades
him to murder Duncan. But as a villain, he has a fatal
weakness— too much imagination. Fear and
suspicion drive him into a tyrannous blood-bath.
‘Noble Macbeth’ becomes ‘this dead butcher’.
Questions:
• Do you feel sympathy for Macbeth at the end of
the play? Give reasons for your answer.
• Do you hate Macbeth at any moment in the
play? In your answer, consider Act 4, Scene 1
when he resolves to murder Macduff’s wife and
children. Is it possible to feel both sympathy and
hate for Macbeth at the same time?
• What is Macbeth’s finest moment in the play?
• At the end of the play, Malcolm describes
Macbeth as a bloody butcher. Does this sum up
how you see him in the play?
• It is tempting to dismiss Lady
Lady Macbeth Macbeth as Macbeth’s evil
inspiration: Adam’s Eve, a
traditional villainess.
• True, she is ambitious, single-
minded and apparently
unscrupulous, but one must
have some pity for her
ultimately damning.
• She tries to deny her own
conscience, but when her
suppressed feelings burst out
they completely overwhelm
her and she is punished with
madness.
Questions:
• If Lady Macbeth is truly evil, why does she need
to summon the forces of darkness to give her
strength?
• Why does Lady Macbeth go mad?
• What is your response to lady Macbeth during
the sleepwalking scene?
• Plot the relationship between Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth, scene by scene. How close are they at
the start of the play compared with the end?
Where does the change begin? Why do you think
it occurs?
• Duncan is shown as
Duncan deeply appreciative of
loyalty, full of dignity
and virtue. Macbeth
understands this well.
• He is perhaps too
generous; his ‘More is
thy due’ to Macbeth is
taken too literally by
Macbeth.
• He is perhaps also too
trusting, but his kingly
qualities show up
Macbeth’s dismal
pretense for what it is.
Questions:
• What traits does Duncan
exhibit that show him to be a
good king?
• What traits suggest that he
may be a weak king?
• What is ironic about Duncan’s
assessment of Cawdor and
Macbeth (I. iv)?
• Explain the irony of Duncan’s
use of growth images (I. iv),
especially in the light of the
battles and recent execution
of Cawdor.
• Macduff is the first character,
apart from Banquo (who has Macduff
better evidence), to have
suspicions about Duncan’s murder
and of Macbeth’s fitness to be
king.
• He is a shrewd man, yet he has
not foreseen the web of intrigue
woven by Macbeth and is perhaps
too honest and chivalrous himself
to imagine the possibility of the
callous murder of his wife and
children after he has gone to
England for help.
• In his conversation with
Malcolm we come to Macduff
appreciate his honourable
and loyal nature; the
terrible anguish he feels at
his family’s massacre is
Macbeth’s doom, exactly
as the Witches prophesied.
Question:
• Are there any significant
flaws in Macduff’s
character? Does the play
show us his tragedy as well
as Macbeth’s?
• Malcolm, like his
Malcolm father, values the
loyalty and bravery of
Banquo and Macbeth,
but is much more than
a mirror image of
Duncan.
• He is quick to sense
the danger after his
father’s death, and has
become shrewd and
self-possessed by the
time we meet him
next, in conversation
with Macduff in
London.
It is he who has the
intelligence to use the
trees of Birnam Wood
as camouflage, who
organizes the final
assault on Dunsinane,
Questions: and whose last
• What sort of king do you think speech in the play, of
Malcolm will make in comparison gratitude, hope and
with Macbeth? faith, convinces the
• Do you find Malcolm less audience that
interesting than Macbeth? If so,
do you think Shakespeare did Scotland once again
this deliberately, or is evil simply has a virtuous king.
more fascinating than goodness?
• The loyal and
Banquo honourable Banquo is
with Macbeth when he
first meets the Witches,
but their reactions are
entirely different.
• He is deeply suspicious
of their powers, and
although their prophecy
to him disturbs his
dreams, he looks to
divine help to fight their
evil.
• After Duncan’s death, Macbeth cannot bear the presence of
this wise and moral man; but, after his own death, Banquo
haunts Macbeth for the rest of his life, with the constant
reminder that the descendants of this virtuous man will
eventually be rightful kings.
Questions:
• Do you think Banquo knows that Macbeth killed Duncan?
Do Macbeth’s fears about Banquo have any foundation?
• Read Banquo’s speech in Act 3, Scene 1, lines 1–10. What
does it suggest about his ambitions and temptations? Is he
guilty of any wrongdoing?
• The Witches are the
embodiment of disorder, Witches
darkness and chaos, in
fact ‘living’ images of the
evil that may tempt
men’s minds.
• Banquo senses that they
are evil but Macbeth is
tempted because they
seem to voice his own
thoughts, and Lady
Macbeth is only too
ready to add her voice to
theirs.
• The Witches never lie, but in the paradoxical
statements of their Apparitions, Macbeth only
hears what he wants to hear. Too late he realizes
that they are not interested in him but only in the
triumph of evil over goodness. His final ‘confusion’
is what they wanted.
Questions:
• To what extent should the Weird Sisters be held
responsible for Macbeth’s murder of Duncan?
• Can they be accused of deliberately misleading
Macbeth by showing him the apparitions?
• Read Act 3, Scene 5. (a) What is Hecate’s
analysis of Macbeth’s character? (b)What does
she plan for Macbeth?
• Who are the witches? What similarities can you
detect between the witches and Lady Macbeth?
Does Shakespeare present a negative view of
women in this play?
Macbeth
Character Analysis
