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Macbeth

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(Duncan) (Malcolm) (Donalbain) (Macbeth) (Lady Macbeth) (Banquo) (Fleance) (Macduff) (Lady Macduff) (Lennox) (Siward) (Hecate) (The Three Murderers)
Aw...he looks sad. Such innocence!
All hail, Mr. Stender! The King of the Legos!
Macbeth is a Scottish general and the thane of Glamis who is led to wicked thoughts by the prophecies of three witches, especially after their prophecy that he will be made thane of Cawdor comes true. Macbeth is a brave soldier and a powerful man, but he is not a virtuous one. He is easily tempted into murder to fulfill his ambitions to the throne, and once he commits his first crime and is crowned king of Scotland, he embarks on further atrocities.
The reader's first impression of Macbeth would be a brave and noble warrior, but apparentely his killing of Duncan shows that his character is more sophisticated and tainted by ambition and guilt. We may quickly label him as an evil villain, but he is different from other characters of Shakespeare who are villains. He lack the strength of these characters since he is unable to handle the guilt of his own actions. But an interesting part of Macbeth is that he recognizes his own immorality and that he is conscious of the goodness he has abandoned.
Now more about Macbeth's murders and his thoughts. He was unsure about killing King Duncan, but Lady Macbeth confirms that he does it by mocking him and encouraging him with her steely purpose. After the murder, however, her powerful personality begins to disintegrate, leaving Macbeth increasingly alone. This leaves him unbalanced and he resorts to a series of more murders to secure his throne. This reflects his tragic flaw, since he is able to carry out his ambitions by ignoring his conscience, but his conscience is unable to withstand the guilt. As things fall apart for him at the end of the play, he seems almost relieved—with the English army at his gates, he can finally return to life as a warrior, and he displays a kind of reckless bravado as his enemies surround him and drag him down. In part, this stems from his fatal confidence in the witches' prophecies, but it also seems to derive from the fact that he has returned to the arena where he has been most successful and where his internal turmoil need not affect him—namely, the battlefield. Unlike many of Shakespeare's other tragic heroes, Macbeth never seems to contemplate suicide: "Why should I play the Roman fool," he asks, "and die On mine own sword?" (Act 5, scene 8). Instead, he goes down fighting, bringing the play full circle: it begins with Macbeth winning on the battlefield and ends with him dying in combat.
The real Macbeth did take the throne from Duncan but Macbeth's character in the play is purely fictional. The immense crime Macbeth committed in the play was actually not much out of the ordinary in 11th century Scotland. Malcolm II, Duncan's predecessor, had killed Kennet III to get the throne. Macbeth had a legitimate claim to the throne as Duncan had since he was also a grandson of Malcolm II. Also, the real Lady Macbeth, or Gruoch, did nto prod Macbeth into usurping the throne. The historical Macbeth had not killed Duncan; he lauched a civil war in which Duncan died.
Feeling lucky? Got noggin? Macbeth