MacbethMacbeth is a Scottish noble and a valiant military man. After a supernatural prophecy, and at the urging of his wife, Lady Macbeth, he commits regicide and becomes King of Scotland. He thereafter lives in anxiety and fear, unable to rest or trust his nobles. He leads a region of terror until defeated by his former ally Macduff. The throne is then restored to the rightful heir, the murdered King Duncan’s son, Malcolm.
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Lady MacbethLady Macbeth is a powerful presence in the play, most notably in the first acts. Following the murder of King Duncan, however, her role in the plot diminishes. She becomes an uninvolved spectator to Macbeth’s plotting, and a nervous hostess at a banquet dominated by her husband’s hallucinations. Her fifth act sleepwalking scene is a turning point in the play, and her line, “Out, damned spot!,” has become a phrase familiar to many speakers of the English language. The report of her death late in the fifth act provides the inspiration for Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” speech.
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King DuncanKing Duncan is the good King of Scotland whom Macbeth, in his ambition for the crown, murders. Duncan is the model of a virtuous, benevolent, and farsighted ruler. His death symbolises the destruction of an order in Scotland that can be restored only when Duncan’s line, in the person of Malcolm, once more occupies the throne.
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MalcolmMalcolm is the son of Duncan, whose restoration to the throne signals Scotland’s return to order following Macbeth’s reign of terror. Malcolm becomes a serious challenge to Macbeth with Macduff’s aid( and the support of England). Prior to this, he appears weak and uncertain of his own power, as when he and Donaldbain flee Scotland after their father’s murder.
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MacduffMacduff is a Scottish hostile to macbeth’s kingship from the start. He eventually became a leader of the crusade to unseat Macbeth. The crusade’s mission is to pace the rightful King, Malcolm, on the throne but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth’s murder of Macduff’s wife and young son.
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Three WitchesThe Three Witches, Three “black and midnight hags” who plot mischief against Macbeth using charms , spells, and prophecies. Their predictions prompt him to murder Duncan, th order the death’s of Banquo and his son, and to blindly believe in his own immorality. the play leaves the withes’ true identity unclear-aside from the fact that they are servant of Hecate, we know little about their place in the cosmos. In some ways they resemble the mythological fates, who impersonally wave the threads of human density. they clearly take a perverse delight in using their knowledge of the future to toy with and destroy human beings.
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BanquoBanquo The brave, noble general shoes children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into action. In a scene, Banquo’s character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquo’s ghost and not Duncan’s that haunts Macbeth. In addition to embodying Macbeth’s guilt for killing Banquo, the most also remind Macbeth that he did not emulate Baquo’s reaction to the witches’ prophecy.
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