Macbeth Character Analysis PDF

# Macbeth - Character Analysis At the beginning of the play Macbeth is the "bravest" soldier and the honourable Thane of Glamis. His rank and nobility are of great value, and he seems to be fit for his status. But his encounter with the witches awakens in him a deep impatient ambition. Immediately...

# Macbeth - Character Analysis At the beginning of the play Macbeth is the "bravest" soldier and the honourable Thane of Glamis. His rank and nobility are of great value, and he seems to be fit for his status. But his encounter with the witches awakens in him a deep impatient ambition. Immediately after the first prophecy of being Thane of Cawdor becomes true the "horrid image" of the murder of King Duncan in order to become king himself crosses his mind. He is not totally cold and solely ambitious as shown by his terror of the murder image, which thoroughly defies his loyalty. There is love in Macbeth as shown by his letter to Lady Macbeth in which he calls her his "dearest partner of greatness." Macbeth is already thinking about being king but he is undecided about whether it is better to succumb to the temptation presented by the witches or to wait for Fate to crown him. Banquo warns him that at times evil forces "tell us truths... to betray's in deepest consequence." Even though he does not state it out loud, Macbeth does care about morality and religion, as demonstrated in his soliloquy (I, IV, 12-28) where he lists the three reasons why he should not kill Duncan: he is "his kinsman," "his subject" and "his host." Macbeth adds that "Duncan hath born his faculties so meek, hath been so clear in his great office, that his virtues will plead like angels." Lady Macbeth knows her husband and feels that he is "too full o' th' milk of human kindness." To counter this she accuses Macbeth of being a coward if he does not kill Duncan. Macbeth does not want to be a coward, either as soldier or as husband, so he accepts to murder Duncan. His ambition and self-image of bravery win over his virtues. Nevertheless he is remorseful after murdering Duncan, and he masks his fear of being found with rage against the supposed murderers and thus kills the drunk guards. Already being king Macbeth is troubled by remorse and cannot sleep easily. Also, Macbeth is fearful of Banquo because he knows what the witches prophesied and may suspect Macbeth. Another thing that bothers him is that he has the demeanour of a king and that the witches promised Banquo a lineage of kings while they only promised him to be king. He refuses to accept that he turned evil just for Banquo's lineage to be kings and so decides to challenge Fate by killing Banquo and his descendants. Once he does he is haunted by Banquo's death and troubled because his son Fleance escaped. He is also worried about the loyalty of other lords, like Macduff. Overall, Macbeth exchanged his peace of mind and virtues for a troublesome crown by allowing his impatient passion for desire of power to overcome his senses. This clearly illustrates that "foul is fair and fair is foul." As time advances Macbeth is more and more unsure about his security as king. To know the best or worst the future holds for him, Macbeth visits the witches. The witches reassure him that he will reign. Through apparitions he is told that he will not be defeated until the Wood of Birnam comes to Dunsinane and that anybody born of woman cannot harm him. Both of these seem impossible events to Macbeth. The images of a line of kings in Banquo's likeness does torment him, though. The magnitude of his relentless and now evil morality shows through his orders to assassinate all of Macduff's family when he finds out that Macduff has fled to England. The news that Malcolm and his troop come to Dunsinane annoy him, but he rests on the promises of the witches and refuses to be afraid. By this time Macbeth is wary of all the trouble being king has brought him. He laments that even if he prevails he will not have honour, love, and obedience in old age. He fully laments that being king is not worth the peace of mind he and Lady Macbeth enjoyed before. Also the health of Lady Macbeth worries him. Her suicide does not strike him so much with grief but rather unleashes his disenchantment and pessimistic view of life. He bitterly reflects: "[Life] is tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." And when he discovers that Birnam Wood apparently moves toward Dunsinane he realizes that the witches cheated him. Nevertheless, he decides to die honourably in battle. On seeing that he will lose the war, he considers but then dismisses suicide. He still clings to the second prophecy of the witches that nobody born of woman can hurt him. When Macduff encounters Macbeth the small but still present moral consciousness of Macbeth is shown through his refusal to fight Macduff because his is already too guilty with the blood of Macduff's family. Macbeth is sure he will kill Macduff too because he is born of a woman. But when Macduff declares that he was "untimely ripped" from his mother's womb Macbeth is afraid and still refuses to fight. Only when Macduff threatens to tie him to a pole and make of him a public spectacle does Macbeth fight Macduff. Macbeth still has dignity at the end and proves not to be a coward by perishing in battle. Macbeth was tempted and cheated by the witches. His own ambitions and passions deceived him into changing his virtues for unrest and immorality. At the end he is wary of life and fully aware of his deception. He pays all the consequences of his betrayal but still dies like a brave soldier. # MACBETH Macbeth is a character of powerful contradictions. He is a man who, for the sake of his ambition, is willing to murder his king and his best friend. At the same time, he has a conscience that is so strong that just the thought of his crimes torments him. In fact, even before he commits his crimes the thought of them makes him miserable. Is Macbeth a horrible monster or is he a sensitive man-a victim of witches and his own ambitions? Or is he both? If he is both, how can the two sides of his nature exist side by side? His actions are monstrous. If Macbeth were a criminal brought to trial, the list of the charges against him would be long: 1. He murders his king, who is also a relative. The crime is treasonous and sacrilegious, since every king is set on his throne by God. Macbeth's guilt is even blacker because the King was his guest at the time of the murder. A host has responsibility to protect his guest. 2. He hires men to kill his best friend, Banquo. He wants the men to kill Banquo's young son, Fleance, too, but Fleance escapes. 3. He sends men to kill Macduff's wife and children. 4. Having taken the crown by murder, he keeps it by deception. He plants spies in all the nobles' homes and spreads lies about Malcolm, who should rightfully inherit the throne. 5. More crimes are referred to but not specified. Macbeth rules by terror, since he does not deserve anybody's loyalty. Describing Scotland under Macbeth's rule, Macduff says, "Each new morn / New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows / Strike heaven on the face..." (Act IV, Scene iii, lines 4-6). So Macbeth does horrible things, but that is not the whole story. Macbeth is different from some of Shakespeare's other villains like Iago (in Othello) and Richard III. The latter enjoy doing evil; they have renounced what we think of as normal ethics and morality. Macbeth's feelings are more complicated. In the beginning of the play, at least, he appears to have a conscience that tells him what he's doing is wrong. Or is he just afraid of the consequences of his actions? He is never able to enjoy the crown he has taken. He experiences nothing but anguish. Is that simply because he is afraid of losing the crown, or is his conscience bothering him? Let's look at how Macbeth feels about each of the crimes we listed before: 1. Killing Duncan horrifies Macbeth. Before the murder, he tries to tell Lady Macbeth that he will not go through with it. She has to goad him into killing the King. After committing the murder, Macbeth seems almost delirious. He says that "...all great Neptune's ocean [will not] wash this blood / Clean from my hand" (A II, Scene ii, lines 60-61). 2. When he murders Banquo, Macbeth is still in torment, but the cause of his anguish seems to have changed. He is afraid of Banquo, because Banquo knows about the witches and because the witches predicted that his descendants would be kings. Banquo's death, he says, will put his mind at rest. 3. We are never told how Macbeth feels about the murder of Macduff's wife and children. Their killing gains him nothing. He has good reason to fear Macduff, but slaughtering his enemy's family is pointless. Macbeth seems to order their murder for spite, out of a feeling of desperation. Despite the witches' new prophecies, which appear to be reassuring, he is afraid of losing the crown. Since he cannot get at Macduff directly, he lets loose this senseless violence. 4. The spies Macbeth plants show how desperate and paranoid he is. He sees enemies-real or imagined- everywhere. 5. The other unspecified acts of violence serve no purpose, as far as we can see, beyond terrifying his subjects so much they won't resist him. Macbeth is striking out at random, and his moral sense seems to have entirely disappeared. The brave hero we met in Act I, who at least seemed honourable, is completely twisted. You can see how much his crimes have cost Macbeth. His reaction to Lady Macbeth's death is a sign of complete despair all feeling is dead in him. His famous speech upon hearing of her suicide-"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow..." (Act V, Scene v, lines 17-28)- is less an expression of grief than it is a speech about the utter meaninglessness of life. You wonder how all this has happened. If he was so horrified by first the idea and then the fact of Duncan's murder, why did he do it? And why commit the other crimes? Apparently his ambition is stronger than his conscience. The witches tempt him with the idea of becoming king. Lady Macbeth helps him overcome his natural hesitation to commit murder. But Macbeth himself chooses between his honour and the crown and between salvation in the next world and material gain in this one. Once he has killed to get the crown, the other crimes seem inevitable. In order to keep what he has taken, Macbeth learns to lie and kill as a matter of course. His values become totally confused. "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" to him now; he has lost track of the difference. All that seems left in the end is his pride. You respect him when he fights to the death rather than be displayed as the monster he is. But some people think that if Macbeth had not been so proud he would not have wanted to be king to begin with, and that if he had been humbler he would have repented. Another aspect of Macbeth is his active imagination. Considering Duncan's murder, he can vividly picture all the possible consequences. His imagination pursues him throughout the play. He's continually reliving his crimes and fantasizing about present and future dangers. Nothing Lady Macbeth can say will quiet his mind. At times he seems crazy or haunted. Before he kills Duncan, Macbeth sees a dagger floating in the air. After the murder, he hears voices. And later he sees Banquo's ghost. You are never quite sure if these are hallucinations - the imaginings of a sick mind-or if they are apparitions, like the witches. You begin to wonder how real they are. ## Character Analysis by Roger Moore **Macbeth:** Macbeth commits a trio of heinous crimes in the course of the play: the regicide of Duncan; the murder of his closest friend, Banquo (and attempted murder of Fleance), and the wanton slaughter of innocents in the persons of Macduff's wife and child. Given all this, we may tend to forget that prior to his encounter with the weird sisters, Macbeth is a hero, a loyal warrior in service of the legitimate king of Scotland, Duncan. His decision to accelerate or to manifest the witches' prophecy that he will rule is marked by pangs of guilt at the thought of the sin entailed in the act of killing a king who had amply rewarded his courage and fidelity. Shamed into sin by Lady Macbeth, Macbeth assumes a practical orientation toward the crime at hand. When thoughts of slaying Duncan to obtain the crown first enter Macbeth's mind, his chief concern is that they not be detected. He proclaims, "Stars, hide your fires/Let not light see my black and deep desires," (I, iv, 11.50-52); on the cusp of crime, he again calls on nature to mask his motives, entreating the earth, "Hear not my steps which way they walk" (II, i, 1.57). As a man of action, Macbeth is convinced that if only he can hide his crime and further the prophecy given to him by the witches, his ill feelings will naturally dissipate. This belief underlies his reaction to the murderer's news that Fleance has escaped the fate that Macbeth planned for him. Learning of this flaw in the execution of his scheme, Macbeth laments: "Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect; Whole as the marble" (III, iv, 11.19-21). From Macbeth's standpoint, the reason that the ghost of Banquo appears at the feast is that the loose end of Fleance's remaining alive has left him "cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in to saucy doubts and fears" (III, iv, 11.23-24). Those doubts and fears lead Macbeth back to the witches and toward still more evil deeds. Having dispatched Banquo to prevent one prophecy from coming true, he is later warned about Macduff and then seemingly reassured that no harm can befall him unless miraculous conditions occur the marching of a wood, the appearance of a man not born by woman. These things, of course, do take place, making Macbeth a victim of his own understanding. Macbeth reaches tragic heights in the soliloquy on the meaninglessness of life that he speaks after learning of Lady Macbeth's death. But even after it is plain that the prophecies of the witches are working toward his destruction, Macbeth displays his mettle. In their final encounter, Macbeth tells Macduff that "The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear/Shall never sag with doubt, nor shake with fear" (V, iii, 11.9-10). He is then told by Macduff that his adversary is not "of woman born." Yet even after the last prop has fallen, Macbeth tells Macduff to "Lay on." Macbeth sinks into a slough of evil, his mind becomes disordered, yet in the final step, his warrior's instinct returns to him.