Line #57 Characters/Macbeth


1	[[foldercontrol]]
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3	[[folder: Macbeth]]
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5	The VillainProtagonist of the play.
6	----
7	* AmbitionIsEvil: Ambition is Macbeth's only motivation and because of his desire to become King, he kills Duncan: "I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition".
8	* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: He leads Scotland's forces to victory against Norway and its King Sweno, and personally kills the treacherous Thane of Cawdor. Duncan rewards him for his efforts by giving him the thanedom of Cawdor. He's also one of the most powerful and influential men in Scotland, to the point of thinking that he's a natural contender to be the next king. When he murders Duncan and forces Malcolm to flee, the rest of the nobility consider him the best choice to be king.
9	* TheCaligula: Considering that Caligula planned to kill Emperor Tiberius himself but wasn't able to do it (and Caligula was rumored to have smothered him with a pillow), this can nearly be literal. Regardless, Macbeth starts to become extremely paranoid and arrogant, killing his best friend Banquo with no qualms and murdering Macduff's wife and son a while after. He also displays much arrogance towards Hecate and the 3 witches, even to his end when fighting Macduff.
10	* DefiantToTheEnd: To his credit, even after [[NoManOfWomanBorn learning that Macduff was not, in fact, "of woman born" (technically speaking)]], he still elects to go down swinging, though as he’s hit the DespairEventHorizon at this point, it’s possible that he’s become a DeathSeeker.
11	--> '''Macbeth:''' And thou opposed, being of no woman born,\
12	Yet I will try the last. Before my body\
13	I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,\
14	And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!'
15	* DespairEventHorizon: Loses the will to live after Lady Macbeth’s suicide. His “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow speech” tops “To be or not to be” in pure despondency.
16	* FaceHeelTurn: Introduced as a valorous and loyal general to King Duncan, ends as a ruthless tyrant whose death is celebrated by the people.
17	* IgnoredEpiphany: He's well aware that what he's doing is wrong and considers backing out of the plot to kill Duncan, but ultimately goes through with it.
18	* KarmicShunning: As Macbeth's paranoia grows, so does he become more isolated, as his wife commits suicide and his generals realize that he's pulled them into a civil war where he has no idea what he's doing.
19	-->'''Angus:''' Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love.
20	* TheKingslayer: Macbeth murders King Duncan in order to become king himself.
21	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Is overcome with guilt the more people he kills.
22	* OffWithHisHead: He is decapitated by Macduff at the end of the play.
23	* TheParanoiac: To the point that he’s been called an ur-Stalin. As guilty as he is, he’s so paranoid about losing his power that he kills anyone and everyone who he imagines poses a threat.
24	* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: Macbeth starts crossing into villainy when he murders King Duncan in his sleep. After that, things only get worse.
25	* SanitySlippage: Gnawing guilt drives Macbeth crazier and crazier and more paranoid as the story progresses.
26	* TheStarscream: He's a successful one, harboring ambitions to become king and then killing Duncan when the latter chooses Malcolm as his successor.
27	* WouldHurtAChild: He attempts to kill Banquo and his son Fleance and then kills Macduff's son a bit after.
28	* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Two examples, one more malevolent than the other:
29	** The malevolent example, of course, is his murdering Duncan and seizing the throne.
30	** More honourably, Macbeth received the title of Thane of Cawdor after killing the previous Thane, Macdonwald, for treason in helping Norway invade Scotland. Duncan gives Macbeth the title as a reward for leading Scotland's successful defence against the Norwegian invasion and for punishing Macdonwald's treachery.
31	[[/folder]]
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34	[[folder: Lady Macbeth]]
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36	Macbeth's wife, who's such an iconic villain she started a trend of wives who encourage their husbands to evil.
37	----
38	* BarefootLoon: Usually played this way after her SanitySlippage, as with Ophelia.
39	* BloodyHallucinationsOfGuilt: Lady Macbeth convinces her husband Lord Macbeth to kill the current king because of a prophecy that says he's to be the next king of Scotland. The ensuing murders the two have to commit to maintain their position slowly drives Lady Macbeth mad with guilt, which includes her imagining bloodstains and [[ScrubbingOffTheTrauma furiously attempting to scrub them away to no avail]], culminating in her infamous line "Out damned spot!"
40	* DidntThinkThisThrough: She convinces herself and Macbeth that they need to kill Duncan and frame his attendants for the murder, and everything will be okay after Macbeth is crowned king. Then Macbeth grows increasingly paranoid and murders even ''more'' people to cover up their crime. And all the while, her guilt begins to catch up with her.
41	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: As ambitious and driven as she is, most productions portray her as a loving wife to Macbeth. She also mentions that she might have killed Duncan herself if he didn't look so much like her father.
42	* HappilyMarried: Her marriage to Macbeth seems to be mutually loving.
43	* LadyMacbeth: The TropeNamer. While Macbeth is keen on becoming king from the beginning, it is his wife who encourages him to take the throne through regicide. But as he starts to become a tyrant, [[UnbuiltTrope she starts going insane with guilt]]. Lady Macbeth made a profound impact, as she's also the TropeCodifier.
44	* SanitySlippage: Lady Macbeth starts to have visual and aural hallucinations driven by her guilt, and she eventually kills herself.
45	* ScrubbingOffTheTrauma: The famous sleepwalking scene: Lady Macbeth is guilt-ridden over Duncan's death, dreams that she has a bloodstain on her hand and she cannot get it out no matter how hard she tries to clean it.
46	* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Even after all her speeches about asking to be made completely evil, she cannot go through with her plan to stab Duncan in his sleep, and Macbeth ends up doing it.
47	[[/folder]]
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49	[[folder: Duncan]]
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51	The king of Scotland, who's just made his son Malcolm his heir.
52	------
53	* DescendedCreator: Based on the writing of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Rowe_(writer) Nicholas Rowe]], the first true editor of Shakespeare, it is widely thought that Shakespeare played the role of Duncan himself. (That said, Rowe's account came nearly a century later.)
54	* TheGoodKing: No one has any complaints about his rule. Macbeth kills him because the prophecy put the idea of being king into his head and his wife put the idea of regicide in his head, not because he hated the guy.
55	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: You'd think that he'd be more careful about naming men Thane of Cawdor and placing his absolute trust in them after the ''first one'' rebelled. In fairness, Macbeth did a lot to actually earn his trust, from killing the treasonous Thane to leading Scotland's victory against a Norwegian invasion.
56	* SlainInTheirSleep: Macbeth knifes Duncan after he goes to sleep. Subverted in the Polanski adaptation where he wakes up in time to see a slightly hesitant Macbeth hovering over him with a dagger, ironically provoking him into committing to going through with it.
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61	[[folder: Malcolm]]
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63	Eldest son of Duncan, he leads the army against Macbeth, and assumes the throne afterwards.
64	----
65	* ManipulativeBastard: One interpretation of him.
66	* RightfulKingReturns: He leads an army back to reclaim Scotland from Macbeth, and the play ends with his taking the throne.
67	* SupportingLeader: Macduff is the one with the real story on their side.
68	[[/folder]]
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70	[[folder: Banquo]]
71	Macbeth's old friend, who is prophesied to bring about a line of kings, though he will never be one himself.
72	------
73	* BestFriend: Early on, he and Macbeth were best buddies. However, when Macbeth becomes King, Banquo becomes suspicious of him while Macbeth is jealous of Banquo's heir Fleance. He decides to end that line by trying to kill Banquo and Fleance, but only Banquo dies.
74	* DefiantToTheEnd: His last words "O slave!" roughly translates to him cursing out his murderers.
75	* {{Foil}}: To Macbeth, in how they treated the witches' prophecies. While both prophecies could be interpreted to mean 'you will overthrow Duncan', Banquo brushes it off and doesn't think of trying to give his son Fleance the throne while Macbeth takes the predictions to heart and becomes obsessed with kingship.
76	* PapaWolf: In ''Film/TheTragedyOfMacbeth'' he's shown fighting off the bandits as best he can to give Fleance a chance to escape.
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78	[[/folder]]
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80	[[folder: Macduff]]
81	A fellow Scottish nobleman, prophesied to bring ruin to Macbeth.
82	----
83	* BigGood: His role in the play. Essentially, he is the Optimus Prime to Macbeth’s Megatron.
84	* BornFromADeadWoman: Until fairly recently, C-sections were only performed on women who suffered DeathByChildbirth. This is part of why NoManOfWomanBorn applies - Macduff was born from a ''corpse''.
85	* CassandraTruth: As it turns out, Macduff was right to be suspicious of Macbeth even when everybody else thought he was TheGoodKing.
86	* {{Foil}}: To Macbeth. While the title character is persuaded to abandon anything feminine (read: feelings), Macduff openly weeps when he learns that his children are dead.
87	* HeroAntagonist: To counter Macbeth's VillainProtagonist. Macduff is a good and noble knight out to avenge his family's deaths and reclaim the throne for the true heir. All very standard protagonist stuff, but the play isn't called ''Macduff'', is it?
88	* ItsPersonal: From the start Macduff works to prove Macbeth's guilt in slaying Duncan for justice, but after Macbeth has Macduff's entire family murdered, it goes from justice to straight-up revenge.
89	* LoopholeAbuse: Macbeth thinks he's invincible due to the NoManOfWomanBorn prophecy. Macduff would beg to differ, given that his C-section birth technically means he wasn't "woman born."
90	* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: His suspicions about Macbeth killing Duncan and his efforts to get Malcolm to return to Scotland and challenge Macbeth for the throne cost him his family.
91	* NoManOfWomanBorn: The TropeNamer; Macduff was born by C-section, which didn't qualify as a normal birth by Elizabethan standards, meaning that he can harm Macbeth in spite of the prophecy that he couldn't be killed by one of woman born.
92	* OnlySaneMan: He's the only person in the play who is suspicious of Macbeth's innocence from the start.
93	* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Macduff is ''dead set'' on taking Macbeth down after Macbeth orders the death of Macduff's wife and children.
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96	[[folder: Weird Sisters]]
97	Three mysterious witches who explain the prophecies to Macbeth.
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99	* AgentProvocateur: Regardless of the production, ''they'' are the ones to plant the seeds of ambition in Macbeth and his wife, knowing the ProphecyTwist that awaited him.
100	* AmbiguouslyEvil: Many have speculated that they're the true {{Chessmaster}}s of the story, but the narrative only presents them as keepers of dangerous knowledge.
101	* AmbiguouslyHuman: The cast occasionally questions whether or not the Witches are truly human. The 2010 version even more or less presents them as full on {{Humanoid Abomination}}s.
102	* ForTheEvulz: They don’t seem to have any motivation for provoking people into committing murder for power; they just do.
103	* GreaterScopeVillain: To Macbeth’s BigBad. Some performances have them answering to the Goddess Hecate, though most people think someone other than Shakespeare wrote that in and consequently leave it out.
104	* TheHecateSisters: Some productions, such as the Creator/PatrickStewart version, depicts them as this.
105	* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: Three creepy old women watching the proceedings of the story and providing cryptic information.
106	* {{Seers}}: They're the ones who provide the prophecies.
107	* TheWeirdSisters: Trope Namer.
108	** Macbeth's descent into villainy is triggered by his encounter with three old and freakishly ugly witches who predict that he is destined to be king of Scotland, which prompts Macbeth to murder King Duncan. In act IV, Macbeth seeks out the witches again and receives three more prophecies which lull him into a false sense of security. While the witches [[TheChessmaster manipulate]] Macbeth, their prophecies are truthful, just worded in ways apt to be misinterpreted by Macbeth, and they do not interfere with fate directly.
109	** There are also three more witches who form the company of Heccat (Hecate), and who do not have any speaking lines.
110	* WickedWitch: Maybe [[AmbiguouslyEvil not quite "wicked"]], but the three are quite sinister.
111	[[/folder]]

Context Characters / Macbeth