3 apparitions | an armed head (beware Macduff), a bloody child (no one born of a woman can harm you), and a child holding a tree (you will reign until Birnam Wood (forest) moves to Dunsinane) |
Angus, Menteith, and Caithness | Scottish nobles who are opposed to Macbeth as King of Scotland and join Malcolm and Macduff in the war against Macbeth |
Banquo | also receives a prophecy from the witches but does not change his actions because of it; Macbeth murders him and his ghost returns to haunt Macbeth |
Banquo’s prophecy | you will not be king but your sons will |
Donalbain | one of Duncan’s sons who is thought to have murdered Duncan; flees to Ireland |
Duncan | the King of Scotland who Macbeth murders in order to become king himself |
Fleance | Banquo’s son, who escapes the murderers and is never seen in the play again |
Hecate | goddess of witches who is associated with the moon, tells them to give Macbeth false security and scorns them for intervening in his affairs |
Lady Macbeth | Macbeth’s wife. The true mastermind behind Duncan’s murder; she accuses her husband of not being a man |
Lady Macduff | Macduff’s wife who will not forgive him for leaving the castle and his family vulnerable |
Lennox | a Scottish noble who questions Macbeth’s rule |
Macbeth | protagonist who receives a prophecy from the witches that tells him that he will be Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and king |
Macdonwald | Scottish traitor; Macbeth unseams him from the nave to the chops early in the play |
Macduff | suspicious of Macbeth; leaves his family to go to England, eventually slays Macbeth because he is not technically born of a woman |
Macduff’s son | is killed when Macduff’s castle is attacked, warns his mother to run |
Malcolm | one of Duncan’s sons who is thought to have murdered Duncan, flees to England |
Ross | a messenger throughout the play who tries to convince Lady Macduff that Macduff didn’t leave because he wanted to leave his family; tells Macduff his wife and children have been slaughtered. |
Seyton | Macbeth’s servant; notice Shakespeare’s play on words, Seyton sounds like Satan. |
Siward | English nobleman who leads the English army against Macbeth |
the 3 weird sisters | give Macbeth the prophecy and are examples of the theme “appearances can be misleading — Fair is foul and foul is fair.” |
the witches’ prophecy | says Macbeth will be the thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King |
Three murderers | 1st two are hired by Macbeth to kill Fleance and Banquo; 3rd murderer sent to ensure the 1st two do their job and then to kill them |
Young Siward | Siward’s son who is slain by Macbeth |
Doctor | overhear Lady Macbeth reenacting the evil deeds she and her husband committed |
Porter | the keeper of Macbeth’s castle gates who drunkenly imagines that he is the keeper of Hell’s gates |
Gentlewoman | attends Lady Macbeth; has witnessed her sleepwalking episodes and heard of her evil deeds |
Thane of Cawdor | ordered executed by King Duncan for being a traitor and siding with the king of Sweden. “Nothing in his life became him like the leaving it.” |
Macbeth Characters
August 29, 2019