Macbeth Characters

Question 1

What is Macbeth like?

Answer 1

• Ambitious
• Brave
• Changeable
• Guilty conscience

Question 2

How is Macbeth presented as being ambitious?

Answer 2

At the start of the play, Macbeth is Thane of Glamis. He quickly becomes the more powerful Thane of Cawdor and then murders his way to become and remain King of Scotland. The Witches’ predictions seem to waken the ambition already in him and he is spurred on by his wife.

Question 3

Analyse:
The prince of Cumberland: That is a step / On which I must fall down, or else o’er-leap, / For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires, / The eye wink at the hand. Yet let that be, / Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see. (Act 1 Scene 4)

Answer 3

Macbeth is clearly worried by the strength of his own ambition which he refers to as black and deep desires. He knows there will be obstacles in his way but is determined to get round them. He just hopes that nobody will see what he is up to which is why he wants the stars to stop shining.

Question 4

How is Macbeth presented as being brave?

Answer 4

At the start of the play, Macbeth shows that he is a mighty warrior when he leads the Scottish troops to victory over an invading force. Duncan, the King, rewards him by making him Thane of Cawdor. At the end of the play, when he knows he is about to die, Macbeth regains some of his old bravery, as he faces Macduff in single combat.

Question 5

Analyse:
For brave Macbeth– well he deserves that name – / Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, / Which smoked with bloody execution, / Like Valour’s minion carved out his passage / Till he faced the slave, Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, / Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’chaps, / And fixed his head upon our battlements. (Act 1 Scene 2)

Answer 5

The Captain describes Macbeth’s actions on the battlefield particularly when he seeks out and kills the traitor Macdonwald. The Captain uses a number of strong verbs and adjectives to show how brave Macbeth has been: ‘brandished’, ‘smoked’, ‘carved’, ‘unseamed’, ‘fixed’.

Question 6

How is Macbeth presented as being changeable?

Answer 6

Macbeth keeps changing his mind about whether to murder Duncan or not. This is particularily so in the early part of the play. His ambition conflicts with his sense of loyalty and morality. Lady Macbeth is key to persuading him and keeping him determined.

Question 7

Analyse:
We will proceed no further in this business. / He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought / Golden opinions from all sorts of people, / Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, / Not cast aside so soon. I am settled and bend up / Each corporeal agent to this terrible feat. (Act 1 Scene 7)

Answer 7

Macbeth has just spent a difficult time convincing himself that killing the King is wrong. He tells Lady Macbeth that he will not carry out the deed. Within the space of a couple of minutes she argues the case for Duncan’s death and Macbeth is, once again, set on murder.

Question 8

How is Macbeth presented as having a guilty conscience?

Answer 8

Throughout the play, Macbeth is tormented by thoughts of the evil things he has done. However, he is caught in a spiral of evil and does not seem able to stop himself.

Question 9

Analyse:
(seeing the GHOST) Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! / Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; / Thou hast no speculation in those eyes / Which thou dost glare with. (Act 3 Scene 4)

Answer 9

Banquo’s ghost appears to Macbeth alone, showing his overactive imagination triggered by a guilty conscience. Although he is now a king, Macbeth cannot command his own emotions and feels irrevocably set on this course of action. The court thinks he is going mad.

Question 10

Why was the murder of Duncan seen as the worst crime ever?

Answer 10

A king in Shakespeare’s time was hought to rule by ‘divine right’. This meant that God had chosen that person directly to rule over others. The killing of a king (known as regicide) was therefore considered to be just about the worst crime that anyone could commit. That is why Macbeth’s decision to murder Duncan seemed so horrific to an audience of the time and why the murderer has such a guilty conscience.

Question 12

What is Lady Macbeth like?

Answer 12

• Ambitious
• Cunning
• Conscience-striken

Question 13

How is Lady Macbeth presented as being ambitious?

Answer 13

Lady Macbeth is, perhaps, even more determined than her husband. She can only be Queen if he becomes King so when he hesitates she displays enough ambition for both of them. Once she has worked out a plan, nothing will turn her from that course until her ambition is fulfilled.

Question 14

Analyse:
Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised; yet do I fear thy nature, / It is too full o’th’milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it. (Act 1 Scene 5)

Answer 14

Lady Macbeth’s determination to succeed is clear here. She is insistent that Macbeth will become King (‘shalt be what thou art promised’) However, she recognises that he is ‘too full o’th’milk of human kindness’ and that this could stand in their way. It is interesting that she describes the necessary ruthless streak as an ‘illness’. This suggests that even at this stage she knows what she is doing is wrong.

Question 15

How is Lady Macbeth presented as being cunning?

Answer 15

To the outside world, Lady Macbeth seems like the ideal supportive wife but this is part of her ability to be deceptive. When Macbeth expresses doubts, she uses every trick she can think of to make sure he carries out their plan to murder Duncan. When he hesitates, she is there to urge Macbeth on.

Question 16

Analyse:
All our service, / In every point twice done and then done double, / Were poor and single business to contend / Against those honours deep and broad wherewith / Your majesty loads our house. (Act 1 Scene 6)

Answer 16

Lady Macbeth welcomes Duncan to her home and flatters him so that he will not suspect a thing. She almost overdoes it when she exaggerates ‘In every point twice done and then done double’. The word ‘double’ also links Lady Macbeth to the evil of the witches - they use the word repeatedly in one of their spells.

Question 17

How is Lady Macbeth conscience-stricken?

Answer 17

Lady Macbeth seems to go from being someone with no conscience at all to someone who is overwhelmed by feelings of guilt. She cannot bear to think of what she has done and eventually dies alone and unmourned even by her husband.

Question 18

Why was the Lady Macbeth thought to be a withc?

Answer 18

In both Shakespeare’s time and in the time when the play takes place, women had a much lower status than would be the case today. Wives were little more than the property of their husbands and had no legal rights. Their main purpose was to have children and support their menfolk. Lady Macbeth appears to be a much more feisty character with ambitions and desires of her own; these are characteristics that could imply a lack of femininity. Also, she was seen as being quite evil and sinister.

Question 19

What was Banquo like?

Answer 19

• Questioning

- Noble

Question 20

How is Banquo noble?

Answer 20

Banquo is in many ways Macbeth’s opposite. He is kind and caring, loyal and trustworthy. Like Macbeth he fights bravely for King Duncan but does not involve himself with the murder plot. When he and Fleance are attacked his first thought is to keep his son safe. Banquo displays all the character traits that go to make up someone who would be regarded as a truly noble person.

Question 21

Analyse:
Our fears in Banquo / Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature / Reigns that which would be feared. ‘Tis much he dares, / And to that dauntless temper of his mind, / He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour / To act in safety. There is none but he / Whose being I do fear. (Act 3 Scene 1)

Answer 21

Macbeth considers what it is about Banquo that gives him cause for concern. He states that Banquo has a ‘royalty of nature’ or nobility about him which actually makes Macbeth afraid of him. He also acknowledges that Banquo has ‘valour’ (bravery) and ‘wisdom’ without feeling the need to take unnecessary risks.

Question 22

How is Banquo questioning?

Answer 22

Banquo seems far less ready to believe the Witches than Macbeth and is suspicious of their motives. He realises that the things they predict/suggest may cause his friend to come to harm. Although, like Macbeth, he is ambitious, he thinks more carefully about the consequences of any action.

Question 23

Anaylse:
That, trusted home, / Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, / Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ‘tis strange, / And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, / The instruments of darkness tell us truths; / Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s / In deepest consequence. (Act 1 Scene 3)

Answer 23

Having listened to the Witches’ predictions, Banquo recognises that Macbeth has been given the spark that will have lit up his ambitious streak (‘enkindle’). He also realises that the predictions are temptations which only reveal part of the truth (‘honest trifles’). This is in order to set a trap for something of greater significance (‘to betray’s in deepest consequence’).

Question 24

What is Macduff like?

Answer 24

• Loyal

- Revengeful

Question 25

How Is Macduff loyal?

Answer 25

Macduff’s first loyalty is to his king and country. It is he who discovers Duncan’s body and reveals the full horror of the murder. He follows Malcolm (the rightful king) to England and becomes his right-hand man supporting him in his bid to regain the throne.

Question 26

Analyse:
Macduff, this noble passion, / Child of >integrity, hath from my soul / Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts / To thy good truth and honour. Devilish Macbeth / By many of these trains hath sought to win me / Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me / From over-credulous haste; but God above / Deal between thee and me, for even now / I put myself to thy direction (Act 4 Scene 3)

Answer 26

Malcolm tests Macduff’s loyalty by pretending to be a worse human being than Macbeth himself. Macduff refuses to give up his loyalty to the Scottish royal family. Malcolm reveals his deception and contrasts the ‘integrity’ and ‘good truth and honour’ of Macduff with that of ‘Devilish Macbeth’. He finishes by saying that he completely trusts Macduff - ‘I put myself to thy direction’.

Question 27

How is Macduff revengeful?

Answer 27

Macduff wants to rid his country of the tyrant Macbeth and vows to help Malcolm achieve this. When he learns of the murder of his family he becomes even more determined to take revenge. He and Macbeth come face-to-face on the battlefield and Macduff is victorious.

Question 28

Analyse:
O, I could play the woman with mine eyes / And braggart with my tongue! But gentle heavens, / Cut short all intermission. Front to front / Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; / Within my sword’s length set him; if he scape, / Heaven forgive him too. (Act 4 Scene 3)

Answer 28

Macduff is actually a man of few words preferring to get on with things. He could sit around crying about his loss (‘I could play the woman with mine eyes’) or making great speeches about his intentions (‘braggart with my tongue’). Instead he cannot wait for the moment (‘cut short all intermission’) when he and Macbeth come face-to-face and he can be avenged.

Question 29

What are the withces like?

Answer 29

• Supernatural

- Ambiguous

Question 30

How are the Witches supernatural?

Answer 30

The Witches are clearly unlike any other characters in the play. Their physical appearance, their style of speech, their actions and their apparent ability to predict the future sets them apart from the humans they seek to control.

Question 31

Analyse:
Round about the cauldron go; / In, the poisoned entrails throw. / Toad, that under cold stone / Days and nights hast thirty-one / Sweltered venom sleeping got, / Boil thou first i’th’charmèd pot. / Double, double, toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. (Act 4 Scene 1)

Answer 31

The Witches meet around one of the most well-known symbols of witchcraft - a cauldron. Into this they throw all manner of foul and evil objects (‘poisoned entrails’) and cast a spell. Although it is not clear what the spell is for, it is obvious they are up to no good. The Witches’ chant is in a different rhythm to the way the other characters speak - this also suggests their supernatural nature.

Question 32

How are the Witches ambiguous?

Answer 32

When the Witches make their predictions, they only say what will happen and not how it will happen. Macbeth falls into their trap and believes that he is safer than he actually is.

Question 33

Analyse:
THIRD APPARITION: Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care / Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are. / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him. MACBETH: That will never be. (Act 4 Scene 1)

Answer 33

The Witches have conjured up three ghostly visions that make ambiguous predictions. Macbeth is told that he need not fear anything (‘take no care who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are’) until a forest of trees uproots itself and moves. As this seems to be a physical impossibility Macbeth instantly dismisses it ever happening (‘That will never be’). The prediction will come true - but not quite in the way Macbeth expects.

Question 34

Analyse:
Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One, two. Why then ‘tis time to do’t. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie, a soldier, and afeard? What need we fear? Who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? (Act 5 Scene 1)

Answer 34

As the guilt-stricken Lady Macbeth sleepwalks, she remembers all the evil things she and her husband have done and tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands (Out, damned spot: out, I say!). In particular, she recalls the night of Duncan’s murder and the part she played in persuading her husband to act. She is also aware that she will be going to hell for her sins.