Macbeth - Characters

Macbeth - Characters

1. Macbeth

   • Ambitious
     • Murdered the King
     • "I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition
     • stronger than morality
   • Conscience/guilty
     • "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?"
     • aware of the consequences
       • "deep damnation" after death
       • his actions are more shocking
     • reluctant to kill duncan
       • "we will proceed no further in the matter"
     • banquos ghost
   • Easily influenced - weak
     • lady macbeth says he will "be more the man"
     • believes the witches prophecies
   • Brave Hero
     • "valiant" warrior
     • fights "bear-like" when he dies
     • "will not yield"
     • ambition ruined his noble characteristics

2. Lady Macbeth

   • cunning
     • "look like th'innocent flower / but be the serpent under 't"
       • false appearances
     • she's in control
   • cruel
     • "fill me from the crowd to the toe topfull / Of direst cruelty"
   • ambitious
     • "unsex / fill with direst cruelty"
     • dominates macbeth to get what she wants
   • guilt
     • kills herself
     • washes hands to washes away guilt
       • "out damned spot"
     • sleepwalking - mind is too disturbed to sleep
   • wants to lose femininity
     • "come to my women's breasts and / take my milk for gall"
     • has a softer side - couldn't kill Duncan herself
   • changes
     • at the start - spoke confidently
     • by the end she is rambling and repeating
       • "come, come, come, come, give me your hand"
     • lost all control

3. Duncan

   • good king
     • puts his country's needs ahead of his own
     • "a most sainted king"
   • kind
     • "let me enfold thee / And hold thee to my heart"
   • too trusting
     • "a gentleman on whom I built / An absolute trust"
   • emotional
     • "drops of sorrows"

4. Malcolm and Donalbain

   • aware they're in danger
     • "these daggers in men's smiles, the near'r in blood / The nearer bloody"
   • Not impulsive
     • "wisdom plucks me / From over-credulous haste"
   • annoyance
     • "why do we hold our tongues"
   • good leader
     • "give obedience where 'tis truly owed"

5. Banquo

   • more noble than macbeth
     • "a wisdom that doth guide his valour"
     • "Noble Banquo / That hast no less deserved"
     • his conscience is more important than power and glory
       • keep's his "allegiance clear"
   • doesn't trust witches
     • questions if the witches are real
     • "neither beg nor fear / Your favours"
     • "win us to harm"
     • is still intrigued by them and thinks about the predictions
   • doesn't protect himself
     • Suspects Macbeth
       • "I fear, / Thou play'dst most foully"
       • didn't think macbeth would betray him
         • "O, treachery!"

6. The Macduffs

   • Contrast with Macbeth's
     • honest and integrity
       • horrified by murder of duncan
     • love/affection
       • calls son "Poor bird" - lady macbeth would kill her son

7. The witches

   • "Fair is foul, and foul is fair"
     • nothing is as it seems
   • evil/gruesome
     • "instruments of darkness"
     • "eye of newt, toe of frog / wool of bat, tongue of dog"
       • short lines and rhyme to set them apart
   • fate
     • control macbeth
       • take advantage of his weaknesses "vaulting ambition"
       • confuse him - "lesser than macbeth, and greater"
     • macbeth could change his fate
     • witches could be messengers of fate, so prophecies are inevitable
     • macbeth makes prophecy come true