Elina Vildere

Macbeth Character Analysis

“By nature provident, and prone to reflection, we look forward with eagerness into
futurity, and anticipate our enjoyments. Never completely satisfied with our present condition,
we embrace in imagination the happenings that is to come. But happiness is relative to
constitution: It depends on the gratification of our desires: And the happiness of mankind is
various; because the desirees of the heart are various. The nature, therefore, of anticipated
enjoyment is agreeable to the nature of our desires,1” writes professor of humanity William
Richardson. What are the desires of Macbeth's characters and how do they shape their arcs of
change?

Macbeth
Macbeth is a general in the King of Scotland army (after the murder of Duncan, becomes
the King). In the first scenes he is introduced as a kind and dutiful man who loves his wife dearly
and performs his duty with gentle ambition. In his letter to Lady Macbeth he writes: “my dearest
partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what
greatness is promised thee.”
However, as soon as the prophecy is revealed his noble ambition turns into a vile drive.
He must realize the prophecy at all costs. The evil seed of this kind of ambition is watered by his
wife's manipulative encouragement. After the first crime - the murder of King Duncan is
committed nothing can be the same. He engages in a series of murders and crosses the threshold
of sanity and madness which throws him into complete isolation of this world.2
Due to the traits of animal nature, humans are prone to violent passions. Reason is what
sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom and it is the task of intellect to control feelings
and cultivate nobility of soul. Macbeth is unable to resist the evil forces which point to the
weakness of his mind, or rather - his split mind. On the one hand, he is aware that his heart is ill;
on the other, he is set on continuing his wretched path even if body fails him: “I'll fight, till from
my bones my flesh be hack'd. / Give me my armour.” By the end of play an abyss between his
inner state and the world has opened. His soul has grown as dark as night.

Macduff
Macduff is the moonlight in this night. He is thane of Scotland and aged a bit older than
Macbeth as he already has children. After he discovers that Macbeth has killed his wife and
children, he wants nothing but revenge and the call of justice becomes his motivation: “If thou
be'st slain and with no stroke of mine, / My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.” Thus
he becomes a force of nemesis clearing the way for redemption: Malcolm becomes the new King
and reestablishes order in the State.

1
Richardson, William. Essays on Shakeseare's dramatic characters. 47.
2
Kirsch, Arthur. Macbeth's Suicide. 269.

1
 Elina Vildere

However, the way that the moon never shows us his other side so does Macduff have a
side which remains a mystery. Why does he leave his wife and children and go God knows
where? And does he blame himself for leaving them unprotected and giving way to Macbeth to
commit his evil deed? If so then another motivative force is his want to redeem himself. He
carries till the end, murdering Macbeth. He is brave and resolute. Though a man with his own
secrets and faults as his wife reveals to their son, “Ay, that he was,” when he asks “Was my
father a traitor, mother?”

Lady Macduff
She is the loving mother and wife of Macduff. Her appearance in the play is brief. It is
the second scene of Act IV before Macbeth murders her and her children. Nevertheless, a scene
is enough to make an impact and spread her moral conviction in her son's mind. She makes it
clear that honest men should hang the traitors and liars.
A woman, a wife and a mother - she is not devoid of passions. The absence of her
husband upsets her deeply and she condemns him: “to leave his wife, to leave his babes, / His
mansion and his titles, in a place / From whence himself does fly? He loves us not; / (..) / All is
fear and nothing is love; / As little is the wisdom, where the flight / So runs against all reason.”
On the one hand, passion is weaved into these words; on the other - there is also wisdom and
reason.
Lady Macduff is wise and loving, but also a woman with her pride and self-respect. She
can be seen as the symbol of maternal love and wisdom. Her gentle nature and
thought-before-deed conduct stands in opposition to her husband's heroism.

Lady Macbeth
She is Macbeth's wife and after the death of King Duncan, becomes the Queen. At the
beginning of play there is abundance of love and kindness in her soul. Having read his husband's
letter, she feels the threat of ambition and fails to resist it.
She wants to be unsexed. What takes place in Act I is a transformation where she takes
full control and possession of her husband and fulfills her intent: “That I may pour my spirits in
thine ear, / And chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden
round, / With fat and metaphysical aid doth seem / To have thee crown'd withal.” With
'metaphysical' here it is meant supernatural. She does not have faith in Christian God and she
creates the conditions for her husband to become the anti-Christ - the Devil. He is her means to
overcome or overthrow God. As in a great tragedy, her want stands higher than the earthly goods
- power and kingship. From the first scenes her will is maneuvering in the spiritual sphere.
After the chain of Macbeth's murders has been set in motion, Lady Macbeth, like her
husband, grows mad. She starts having visions with seeing blood on her hands which ultimately
leads her to take her own life. Their love, which at the beginning is expressed in words and
gestures, transforms into a strong spiritual bond. Macbeth sees not a gust of hope, all is pitch

2
 Elina Vildere

black after his wife's suicide and his state is revealed in soliloquy “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and
tomorrow, / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day, / To the last syllable of recorded time”.
Lady Macbeth is the resistant force to Christianity. I would argue that it is not less
Macbeth but more Lady Macbeth who is the Devil. Macbeth is the human flesh where her flame
of Evil finds home and realizes herself. They become one. (This, then, is even a greater love
story than Romeo and Juliette).

Banquo
Banquo is the counterforce of Lady Macbeth. He is Macbeth's best friend, also a general
in King Duncan's army. His presence and influence places Macbeth between two counteracting
forces - the good (Banquo) and the evil (Lady Macbeth). The good is extinguished when
Macbeth murders Banquo.
Banquo's ghost appears in the banquet scene. Levinas calls it “the shadow of being”
because “to kill, like to die, is to seek escape from being, to go where freedom and negation
operate.”3 It follows then that Macbeth is murdering not for the sake of murder but because he
wants to escape life, free himself from the chains of existence. Banquo's ghost terrifies him and
intensifies his isolation. Banquo as “the shadow of being” is the call of conscience. Even after his
death, he is determined to continue his duty and his desire to be the good angel and the good
friend who brings Macbeth back to his right mind. Although he fails, he remains the symbol of
the good. (He affirms his role in Act I when he is able to resist the evil forces - Witches).

First Witch
First of all, her role is to set the action in motion and introduce the main character. Her
dramatic entrance and talking about Macbeth creates intrigue for the audience. She is an agent of
Fate and reveals prophecy to Bunquo and Macbeth. She serves as a test for the humankind -
Banquo succeeds in resisting evil while Macbeth fails.
She should be a woman yet is nothing like one, Banquo expresses her contradictory
nature: “you should be women, / And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so.
Moreover, she is vindictive and devoid of conscience. She purely wants to commit evil deeds and
infect human beings with wretched forces and takes pleasure in doing so: “But in a sieve I'll
thither sail, / And, like a rat without a tail, I'll do, I'll do, I'll do.” Thus she is the incarnation of
evil in the universe and stands in stark opposition to nature (and to Christian God).

3
Levinas. Existence and Existents. 56.

3
 Elina Vildere

Despite the moral goodness of King Duncan, he too is a contradictory character. In his

analysis of King Duncan, Ribenr points out his virtue: “Duncan himself is symbolic of the

fruitful aspects of nature.”4In regards to his contribution to the flourishing trade in the 13th

century Riga, Bishop Albert can be viewed as the symbol of economic fertility. Even if King

Duncan’s decision in promoting Macbeth and Banquo has its grounds in their achievements, his

figurative speech reveals traces of romantic naivety: “This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air /

Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself / Unto our gentle senses.”5 This is the King’s opening

line of Scene VI of Act I and we notice how the use of such epithets as “Nimbly and sweetly”

clashes with the image of authority that a King should project. But he also seem to recognize his

own softness of heart when, greeting Lady Macbeth, exclaims: “The love that follows us

sometime is our trouble, / Which still we thank as love.”6 In these ways Duncan’s character

corresponds to Bishop Albert’s. In his devotion to Christianity he founded the Order but it soon

began causing him troubles and ultimately taking arms against its father.

The relationship between Bishop Albert and the Brothers of Swords also mirrors the

fatherly bond between Duncan and Mcbeth. As Duncan is the symbol thus source of fruitfulness,

with the act of murder Macbeth “cuts off the source of his own being, and this idea is echoed in

Lady Macbeth’s “Had he not resembled / My father as he slept, I had done it”, for this line is

largely choral commentary to emphasise the father symbolism with which Duncan is endowed”7.

4
150
5
14.
6
14.
7
150.