Macbeth Characters Analysis

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1. Macduff - foil to
macbeth

2. Macduff - no-
ble and incor-
ruptable

3. Macduff - emo-
tional

4. Macbeth -
changeable

5. Macbeth - brave

6. Macbeth - ambi-
tious

7. Macbeth - re-
deeming quali-
ties

8. Macbeth - weak

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9. Macbeth - adjec-
tives

10. Macbeth - evil

11. Macbeth - guilty

conscience

12. Lady Macbeth -

powerful, moti-
vated

13. Lady Macbeth -

power and influ-
ence diminished

14. Lady Macbeth -

evil

15. Lady Macbeth -

feminine stereo-
types shown in
play

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16. Lady macbeth -
weak

17. Banquo - resis-

tance to evil

18. Banquo - foill

19. Banquo - sus-

pecting macbeth

20. Banquo - noble

21. Banquo - ques-

tioning

22. Banquo - adjec-

tives
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23. Malcolm - testing

Macduff

24. Malcolm - skilled

leader

25. Malcolm - ratio-

nality and caring

26. Malcolm - purity

and character de-
velopment

27. Malcolm - king's

son

28. Macbeths lack of "she should have died hereafter" - suggests he has no
love for Lady love for her at all, inconvenience for him and dragging his
Macbeth attention away, resentment and indifference, doesn't call
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her by name

death happens offstage - lack of love and lack of interest,

interest and doesn't go to her

next lines after this shows he hardly speaks about her and
focuses on himself

29. Macbeth's mar- marriage broken down because she emasculated him
riage broken
down suggests she is braver and better, questioning his mas-
culinity with "art thou a man" and "i shame to wear a heart
so white"

30. Macbeth's lack of patriarchal society but LM embarrassed him in public and
love for Lady humiliated him in private by calling him a coward. Shake-
Macbeth - Shake- speare points out her proper subservient place by having
speare's purpose her die off stage. Punished for being unsexed and rejecting
and context feminine role, not even importance of dying on stage.

31. Macbeth actually Macbeth facing his own death but pities wife for guilt and
loves him wife in- anguish
terpretation
sleepwalking scene is just before battle and vital prepara-
tions but Macbeth takes time to call for doctor to "minister"
to her, deeply troubled by wife's mental conditions as he
feels guilt for trying to keep her "innocent of the knowl-
edge" so he takes the blame for her madness

"she should have did hereafter" - suggests he was hoping

she would have lived a longer life despite knowing he
would be killed

32. Macbeth actual- offstage tragedy of LM's death is presented partly to ex-
ly loves him wife plain what could happen when women are denied any
interpretation - equality or power in a patriarchal society, her margin-
shakespeare pur- alisation leads to her desire to become queen and her
pose subsequent persuasion of her husband

33.
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Macbeth anger "throw physic to the dogs" - wants to get rid of all medicine
about doctor because this one doctor can't help his wife, desperate to
help his wife

34. Macbeth - fears "i had almost forgot the taste of fears" - yearning for the
feeling of far to feel human again, knows he will die

35. Macbeth and Savagery of macbeth can be seen as the mourning for loss
Lady Macbeth of baby
Response to
death of their LM take my milk for gall reminds us she is still lactating
baby and her body expects the baby to be here, so she is
psychologically struggling and they have fertility problems,
this is their only child - could be the weakness that starts
their hamartia

36. Macduff aban- Leaves undefended, knowing that as soon as Macbeth

doning family finds out, his family is vulnerable, does he do it to give him-
self an unknown psychological advantage to give himself
the power and motivation to come back and kill Macbeth,
sacrifice and ultimate act of cowardice

37. Banquo never knows macbeth has killed duncan, but he desn't tell other
sharing his sus- nobles and keeps utterly silent and is prepared to en-
picions with oth- ter into negotiations with macbeth, could have prevented
ers everything

needs macbeth to become king in order to buy time for

witches prophecy about fleance to be true, as prophecies
won't won't if macbeth doesn't become king first

banquo is descendant of king james, so shakespeare has

to imply it

38. lady mac- tells us they sleep apart, showing becoming king and
beth's sleepwalk- queen has made their lives worse
ing scene
and prepares way for her suicide

reveals macbeths great love for his wife

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39. macbeth killing leads to his madness, not the killing of duncan
banquo
juxtaposing 2 killings, duncan killing leads to guilt and
psychological problems, but baqnuo killing leads to worse
problems like hallucinations and bloodlust

also infer his deep love of banquo, can't face killing him
himself and distances himself (plunged 2 daggers into
duncan despite not wanting to kill him)

40. Macbeth's fear of Refuses to fight macduff, balanced against desire t die as
death and Mac- he is seeking someone out to kill him, who is "not born of
duff, balanced woman", realising simply life not worth living
against his de-
sire to die

41. macduff's moral he was morally a coward by leaving family but at the end
cowardice vs de- he kills macbeth for the greater good of scotland
sire for revenge

42. Macbeth - male Each male makes catastrophic decision

characters
- duncan keeps naming people thane of cawdor that turn
out to be traitors
macbeth - keeps on killing after killing duncan
macduff - abandons family so they are alone so macbeth
can slaughter them, which lady macduff said was very
likely to happen
banquo - never tells anyone of suspicions that macbeth
has murdered duncan
malcolm - not going to remain king because fleance will
take over, malcolm too might make catastrophic male
decision

can view the unsexing of LM as her male mistake, embrac-

ing qualities of masculinity -relates to going from queen e
to king j

shakespeare - whole play as an attack on masculine de-

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cision making in a medieval warlike society

shakespeare pessimism at queen e, female, being re-

placed by king james, male

43. iambic pentame- Verses in Shakspeare's plays are written in imabic pen-
ter tameter de- DUM, de-DUM,

given to characters of noble birth

recreates heartbeat and sounds like natural conversation

44. trochaic (tetram- DUM-de, DUM-de, emphasis on first syllable, reveal char-
eter) acter's issues/guilt etc and show character is losing control

witches speak in this and macbeth starts to as he be-

comes more evil. it is unnatural and therefore creates an
unsettling tone, opposite of heartbeat

45. Christian Morali- God created Adam and Eve Eden. He forbade them "to
ty and the Nature eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil."
of God Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempted Eve to eat the
fruit. She was filled with knowledge, and persuaded Adam
to eat also. things they know they shouldn't do. (This is
why Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to kill Because of
this, women are traditionally presented as temptresses,
luring their men to do Duncan). God punished Adam and
Eve by banishing them from Eden. (This is why Macbeth
and Lady Macbeth never enjoy being king and queen -
Shakespeare makes sure that they are banished from
"joy" and happiness).

46. Original sin We are all marked by this crime of Adam and Eve against
God. It is called Original sin. This means we are all born
evil, and must continually strive to be good. (That's why
Banquo tries not to get involved in Macbeth's plan, why
The weird sisters don't actually tell Macbeth to kill anyone).

47. Fate and Free God created Eden as an experiment in free willI. Could
Will Adam and Eve refuse to be tempted? Could they choose
to be good, using their own free will? The answer is no.
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They freely chose to go against his command. However,
he continually allows all men and women to exercise free
will for the rest of their lives. Only by choosing to live good
lives, and make moral choices, can they get back to the
state of perfection they had in Eden, and get into Heaven.
We can clearly see this idea of temptation and free will
being played out in the choices the Macbeths make about
murder.

48. Fate and Free Greek tragedy a character In but then whatever they do
Will Greek will find out their fate from a prophecy. They try to avoid
tragedy their fate. brings about that fate without them knowing it.
They can't escape it. Similarly, as a tragic hero, Macbeth
can't escape his fate.

49. The Great Chain The Great Chain of Being was a way of keeping power with
of Being the rich, and stopping those lower down the social ladder
asking for more. The idea was God sat at the top of this
chain, then came angels, then the Pope, then kings and
queens, then the nobility in all their ranks, then the middle
classes (people with wealth but no title), tradesmen, and
workers. Then women, then animals, with eagles and lions
at the top, down to through less impressive creatures to
insects at the bottom. In medieval times this meant that
God decided on everyone's 'station' or status in life, and
where you sat in the social hierarchy. It meant that kings
and queens were appointed by God, by "Divine Right", so
rebelling against a monarch was a sin against God.

50. The Role of In Jacobean society, women were subservient to men.

Women in the Pa- They were not even allowed to act on stage, their parts be-
triarchy ing played by young men. In marriage, a woman was liter-
ally her husband's possession, and all that she owned be-
came his. As you can see, in Jacobean England, women
had few rights, and their main role was as mothers. When
we study Shakespeare we can see the tension between
what society expects from the female characters, and what
they want for themselves.

51.
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Shakespeare It is quite easy to see Shakespeare asking for women
women to have greater power and status in his plays, attacking
society's beliefs. When we see Lady Macbeth's tragic fate,
we can argue this is caused by Shakespeare's beliefs,
agreeing with the society he lives in, punishing women for
breaking the patriarchal rules.

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