|
Macbeth: Main Character Studies
The Evil Characters
Macbeth How Macbeth's state of mind gradually changes
He is tempted to the commission of guilt by golden opportunities, by the instigations of his wife and by prophetic warnings.
His redeeming qualities - he feels guilt at the beginning and just before he fights Macduff; he is courageous; the fact that he tries to shelter his wife; he realises the depth to which he has fallen in killing the king (unlike his wife); and te fact that he appears to only murder out of desperation.
BUT he is a man without a motive ("only vaulting ambition")
Positive descriptions at the beginning of the play ("peerless kinsman", "worthy thane", "loyal" etc) to negative descriptions from Act 3 onwards ("tyrant", "fiend", "hell-hound", "coward", dead butcher"). His wife alone realises his weaknesses, that he us "too full o' the milk of human kindness" to fulfil his ambition.
His tragic flaw is his ambition and his weakness is that he thinks that he can cope with the guilt if he does not get caught out. Lady Macbeth plays upon this weakness to spur him on to murder.
Tragic hero who is so full of ambition that he destroys himself. The play ends with his being cornered in his castle: wife dead, friends dead by his hand, few supporters, utter despair when Birnhan Wood moves and he realises that Macduff was not born naturally - all his hopes are dashed but he refuses to give up and die like a "Roman".
He is pathetic and desperate in the last scene and we feel pity for a man who has been utterly crushed.
His fatal weakness is his imagination which sends him mad and desperate for security - at whatever cost.
Lady Macbeth
She is a self-made woman of ambition and evil who gradually is worn down by guilt to the pathetic state in Act 4: a sleep-walking mad woman. Yet is only an appearance of evil as she pretends to have all the answers for her husband without admitting her fears. Her weakness is shown in her having to call upon the power of evil spirits to fill her with courage.
Good public actress with Duncan and then at the feast where Banquo's ghost frightens her husband.
Witches
The embodiment of evil, representing the world of chaos and degradation. They enjoy bringing men to their downfall: they do not lie but they lay the ground for men to destroy themselves.
The Good Characters
Duncan
Appreciates Macbeth's loyalty but too short-sighted to reward such loyalty in a country as divided as Scotland. Gentle, dignified and virtuous. Very trusting and not cautious, unlike his son Malcolm.
Macduff
Suspicious and loyal to Duncan, yet too naive because he does not realise the depth to which Macbeth will stoop to achieve his ends - he leaves his wife and babies open to Macbeth's butchers when he goes to England to get help. He is like a Macbeth without the ambition.
Malcolm
He is virtuous and noble like his father but shrewd enought to realise the danger that both he and his brotehr are in and the need to distrust everyone. He is not only a virtuous heir but a good soldier as he realises the value of using the branches of Birnham Wood as camouflage.
Banquo
Loyal, trustworthy yet suspicious. Realises early on that Macbeth played most foully for the crown
|
|
