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Macbeth
The Villain Protagonist of the play.
- Ambition Is Evil: 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".
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: 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.
- The Caligula: 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.
- Defiant to the End: To his credit, even after 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 Despair Event Horizon at this point, it’s possible that he’s become a Death Seeker.Macbeth: And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
Yet I will try the last. Before my body
I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff,
And damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, enough!' - Despair Event Horizon: 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.
- Face–Heel Turn: Introduced as a valorous and loyal general to King Duncan, ends as a ruthless tyrant whose death is celebrated by the people.
- Ignored Epiphany: 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.
- Karmic Shunning: 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.Angus: Those he commands move only in command, nothing in love.
- The Kingslayer: Macbeth murders King Duncan in order to become king himself.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Is overcome with guilt the more people he kills.
- Off with His Head!: He is decapitated by Macduff at the end of the play.
- The Paranoiac: 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.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Macbeth starts crossing into villainy when he murders King Duncan in his sleep. After that, things only get worse.
- Sanity Slippage: Gnawing guilt drives Macbeth crazier and crazier and more paranoid as the story progresses.
- The Starscream: He's a successful one, harboring ambitions to become king and then killing Duncan when the latter chooses Malcolm as his successor.
- Would Hurt a Child: He attempts to kill Banquo and his son Fleance and then kills Macduff's son a bit after.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: Two examples, one more malevolent than the other:
- The malevolent example, of course, is his murdering Duncan and seizing the throne.
- 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.
Lady Macbeth
Macbeth's wife, who's such an iconic villain she started a trend of wives who encourage their husbands to evil.
- Barefoot Loon: Usually played this way after her Sanity Slippage, as with Ophelia.
- Bloody Hallucinations of Guilt: 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 furiously attempting to scrub them away to no avail, culminating in her infamous line "Out damned spot!"
- Didn't Think This Through: 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.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: 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.
- Happily Married: Her marriage to Macbeth seems to be mutually loving.
- Lady Macbeth: The Trope Namer. 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, she starts going insane with guilt. Lady Macbeth made a profound impact, as she's also the Trope Codifier.
- Sanity Slippage: Lady Macbeth starts to have visual and aural hallucinations driven by her guilt, and she eventually kills herself.
- Scrubbing Off the Trauma: 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.
- What You Are in the Dark: 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.
Duncan
The king of Scotland, who's just made his son Malcolm his heir.
- Descended Creator: Based on the writing of 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.) - The Good King: 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.
- Horrible Judge of Character: 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.
- Slain in Their Sleep: 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.
Malcolm
Eldest son of Duncan, he leads the army against Macbeth, and assumes the throne afterwards.
- Manipulative Bastard: One interpretation of him.
- Rightful King Returns: He leads an army back to reclaim Scotland from Macbeth, and the play ends with his taking the throne.
- Supporting Leader: Macduff is the one with the real story on their side.
Banquo
Macbeth's old friend, who is prophesied to bring about a line of kings, though he will never be one himself.
- Best Friend: 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.
- Defiant to the End: His last words "O slave!" roughly translates to him cursing out his murderers.
- 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.
- Papa Wolf: In The Tragedy of Macbeth he's shown fighting off the bandits as best he can to give Fleance a chance to escape.
Macduff
A fellow Scottish nobleman, prophesied to bring ruin to Macbeth.
- Big Good: His role in the play. Essentially, he is the Optimus Prime to Macbeth’s Megatron.
- Born from a Dead Woman: Until fairly recently, C-sections were only performed on women who suffered Death by Childbirth. This is part of why No Man of Woman Born applies - Macduff was born from a corpse.
- Cassandra Truth: As it turns out, Macduff was right to be suspicious of Macbeth even when everybody else thought he was The Good King.
- 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.
- Hero Antagonist: To counter Macbeth's Villain Protagonist. 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?
- It's Personal: 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.
- Loophole Abuse: Macbeth thinks he's invincible due to the No Man of Woman Born prophecy. Macduff would beg to differ, given that his C-section birth technically means he wasn't "woman born."
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: 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.
- No Man of Woman Born: The Trope Namer; 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.
- Only Sane Man: He's the only person in the play who is suspicious of Macbeth's innocence from the start.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Macduff is dead set on taking Macbeth down after Macbeth orders the death of Macduff's wife and children.
Weird Sisters
Three mysterious witches who explain the prophecies to Macbeth.
- Agent Provocateur: Regardless of the production, they are the ones to plant the seeds of ambition in Macbeth and his wife, knowing the Prophecy Twist that awaited him.
- Ambiguously Evil: Many have speculated that they're the true Chessmasters of the story, but the narrative only presents them as keepers of dangerous knowledge.
- Ambiguously Human: 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 Abominations.
- For the Evulz: They don’t seem to have any motivation for provoking people into committing murder for power; they just do.
- Greater-Scope Villain: To Macbeth’s Big Bad. 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.
- The Hecate Sisters: Some productions, such as the Patrick Stewart version, depicts them as this.
- Omniscient Council of Vagueness: Three creepy old women watching the proceedings of the story and providing cryptic information.
- Seers: They're the ones who provide the prophecies.
- The Weird Sisters: Trope Namer.
- 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 manipulate Macbeth, their prophecies are truthful, just worded in ways apt to be misinterpreted by Macbeth, and they do not interfere with fate directly.
- There are also three more witches who form the company of Heccat (Hecate), and who do not have any speaking lines.
- Wicked Witch: Maybe not quite "wicked", but the three are quite sinister.
