Characters

In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, we meet numerous characters, but only a handful of them are truly important. 

The protagonist and tragic hero of the play is Macbeth. When we first meet him, he is a well-respected Scottish nobleman and loyal to King Duncan, who is also his relative. However, a prophecy ignites Macbeth’s ambition and makes him kill the King. He gradually becomes a cruel tyrant. This eventually leads to his moral destruction, the loss of his wife, and eventually his life.

Lady Macbeth is Macbeth’s wife and partner in crime. She fully supports his ambition and presents herself as an unusually strong woman for her time. This is seen when she is bossing around her husband or commanding evil spirits to remove her feminine characteristics. However, as guilt catches up with her, she commits suicide.

The three witches function as catalysts for Macbeth’s ambition as their prophecy predicts that he...