Macbeth & Lady Macbeth Character Analysis

"Oh valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman." - (Act 1, Scene 2, l. 24) MACBETH: Worthy gentleman or hell-hound? “Turn, hell-hound, turn!” – (Act 5, Scene 8, l. 3)

In a few words: At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a captain in Duncan's army and the Thane (Lord) of Glamis. When returning from battle, he is told by three witches that he will soon by Thane of Cawdor - a prophecy that quickly comes true. The witches also predict he will one day be king of Scotland. Upon hearing this, Macbeth allows his wife’s encouragement and his own ambition overcome his better judgement. He kills King Duncan and takes over the crown. Once he commits this first crime, he embarks on further atrocities with increasing ease – even killing his best friend (Banquo) when he fears the other man suspects him of killing King Duncan. His bloody reign ends in a battle against Malcolm (King Duncan’s son) and the English forces.

“…brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)…” (Act 1, Scene 2, l. 16) Macbeth is a man who – at the start of the play – appears to be a good man, with loyal friends, one who fights for his king. He fights so well, in fact, that he singlehandedly wins the battle that King Duncan and the Scots are fighting against the Norwegians at the beginning of the play. #killsitinakilt #theorignalbraveheart

The passage below describes Macbeth’s prowess on the battlefield… “But all’s too weak: 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.” Wounded solider to King Duncan, Act 1, Scene 2, l. 15 – 24. The wounded solider tells King Duncan that the Scots were about to lose the battle against the Norwegians and the traitor Macdonwald - until Macbeth turned up. He says that Macbeth changed the “fortune” or fate of the battle with his sword (”his brandished steel”), literally carving his way across the battlefield until he faced the leader of the Norwegians (“the slave”). Then without so much as a ’hello’ (”ne’er shook hands”) Macbeth defeated the the Norwegian leader ”unseam(ing) him from the nave to th’ chaps” or cutting him open from his belly button to his chin before cutting off his head and putting it on stick. …Lovely. Don’t be scared of the language! With Shakespearian, you can usually recognise enough words to get by!

King Duncan is very pleased with Macbeth after the battle… “O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!” (My brave relative! What a worthy man!) Duncan about Macbeth. “No more that thane of Cawdor shall decieive/ Our bosom interest: go pronounce his present death,/ And with his formal title greet Macbeth.” (The thane of Cawdor will never again betray me. Go announce that he will be executed, and tell Macbeth that Cawdor’s titles will be given to him.) - Duncan explains that the thane of Cawdor is to be executed for fighting with the Norwegians against the Scots. Macbeth is to be given his title. “What he hath lost, nobel Macbeth has won.” (The thane of Cawdor has lost what the nobel Macbeth has won.) - Macbeth is to receive the power and wealth that comes with being a thane twice over. #pleasedas #macbethismyhomeboy

"All hail, Macbeth. Hail to the, Thane of Glamis. All hail, Macbeth "All hail, Macbeth! Hail to the, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to the, Thane of Cawdor! All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!" - the Witches to Macbeth. (Act 1, Scene 3. L. 49 - 51)

“Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more!” (Act 1, Scene 3, l. 71) When returning from the battle, Macbeth and Banquo come across three witches. The “weird sisters” greet Macbeth as Thane of Glamis (which he is), Thane of Cawdor (which the King has just named him – though he doesn’t know this yet) and as ”king hereafter!” “Stay you imperfect speakers, tell me more!” (Act 1, Scene 3, l. 71) When Macbeth hears the witches' prophesy, he's super interested in what they have to say—obviously, since they're saying that he's about to become king. But he's also terrified by his "horrible imaginings" —his hair stands on end and his heart races, "knock[ing] at [his] ribs." "My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical," says Macbeth, "Shakes so my single state" (1.3.152-153). Whose murder do you think Macbeth is imagining? If your heart is knocking against your ribs, what emotion might you be feeling?

This doesn't sound like a man who's excited to start busting out with the treachery. In fact, he sound like he's horrified by his own thoughts – by the very idea that killing King Duncan might be the “nearest way” (Act 1, Scene 5, l. 17) to the crown. So, what changes? There are a number of reasons why Macbeth comes to act on his ‘horrible imaginings’. Here are the popular theories: Lady Macbeth manipulate him into killing King Duncan by insulting his manhood and his ability in the bedroom. Macbeth is a victim of fate and is influenced by outside forces. Macbeth’s ambition is his ‘fatal flaw’ that eventually over powers his better judgement.

“Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires “Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.” (Act 1, Scene 4, l. 52-53) While Duncan’s murder is the beginning of the end for Macbeth’s morals – he is never able to move past the guilt he feels. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show the terrible effects that ambition and guilt can have on a man who lacks strength of character. We may classify Macbeth as irrevocably evil, but his weak character separates him from Shakespeare’s great villains—Iago in Othello, Richard III in Richard III, Edmund in King Lear—who are all strong enough to conquer guilt and self-doubt. Macbeth, great warrior though he is, is ill equipped for the psychological consequences of his crime(s).

PASSAGE ANALYSIS: Before Macbeth murders Duncan, he almost talks himself out of it. He says: Ah, how about in English this time, Mac B? “But for crimes like these there are still punishments in this world. By committing violent crimes we only teach other people to commit violence, and the violence of our students will come back to plague us teachers. Justice, being equal to everyone, forces us to drink from the poisoned cup that we serve to others. The king trusts me in two ways. First of all, I am his cousin and his subject, so I should always try to protect him. Second, I am his host, so I should be closing the door in his murderer’s face, not trying to murder him myself.” “But in these cases, We still have judgement here; that we but teach Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return To plague th’ inventor: this even-handed justice Commends th’ ingredients of our poison’d chalice To our own lips. He’s here in double trust; First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, Who against his murderer shut the door, Not bear the knife myself.” (from Act 1, Scene 7) That’s better…

"Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear "Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear." - (Act 1, Scene 5, l. 22 - 23) LADY MACBETH: Dearest chuck or fiend-like queen? "Bring forth men-children only, For thy undaunted mettle should compose Nothing but males." - (Act 1, Scene 7, l. 73 - 74) 

In a few words: Lady Macbeth is the wife of Macbeth. After Macbeth tells her about the witches prophecies, her ambition and manipulation helps to drive her husband toward the desperate act of murder. King Duncan’s murder is – arguably – her idea, and she takes charge of the situation when Macbeth appears to lose his nerve. After the murder, her husband's uncharacteristic cruelty and her own guilt backfire, sending the new queen into a madness from which she never recovers.  

#sistersdoingitforthemselves #hbic #gurlpower Lady Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most famous and frightening female characters. When we first meet her in the play, she is already plotting Duncan’s murder, and she is stronger willed, more ruthless, and more ambitious than her husband. #sistersdoingitforthemselves #hbic #gurlpower

In fact, when Macbeth tries to wuss out of their plan to kill King Duncan – it is Lady Macbeth that convinces him to go through with it.

PASSAGE ANALYSIS Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband with remarkable effectiveness. She says to him: Plain English: “What beast was’t, then, That made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more the man… …I have given suck, and know How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you Have done this.” (from Act 1, Scene 7) If your weren’t a man, then what kind of animal were you when you first told me you wanted to do this? When you dared to do it, that’s when you were a man. And if you go one step further by doing what you dared to do before, you’ll be that much more the man… …I have suckled a baby, and I know how sweet it is to love the baby at my breast. But even as the baby was smiling up at me, I would have plucked my nipple out of its mouth and smashed its brains out against a wall if I had sworn to do that the same way you have sworn to do it.

Lady Macbeth: Convinces Macbeth to kill Duncan: “When you durst do it, then you were a man” Comes up with the plan do blame Duncan’s death on the King’s guards: “His two chamberlains/ Will I with wine…when in swinish sleep/ Their drenched natures lie as in death,/ What cannot you and I perform upon/ The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon/ His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt/ Of our great quell?” Tells Macbeth she would have killed Duncan herself if he had not looked like her father while he slept. “Had he not resembled/ My father as he slept, I had done’t.” Frames the guards when Macbeth stuffs up the plan. “Give me the daggers…If he do bleed,/ I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,/ For it must seem their guilt.” Tells Macbeth to ‘man up’ after Duncan’s murder: “My hands are of your colour, but I shame/ To wear a heart so white.

Afterwards, however… Lady Macbeth begins a slow slide into madness—just as ambition affects her more strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does guilt plague her more strongly afterward. By the close of the play, she has been reduced to sleepwalking through the castle, desperately trying to wash away an invisible bloodstain. Once the sense of guilt comes home to roost, Lady Macbeth’s sensitivity becomes a weakness, and she is unable to cope. Significantly, she (apparently) kills herself, signaling her total inability to deal with the legacy of their crimes.