CHARACTERS:

THE WITCHES:

The witches are immediately introduced with the word “thunder” (just like in the first scene). With this the witches are presented as a negative force. Besides this they are shown with the classical witch image of that time. See (Witchcraft and the supernatural in scene 3 of act 1) of the presentation.

They enjoy being destructive and the evils they do. They are also able to manipulate the situation they’re in: physically (the change of the wind-blow) as much as they can manipulate it psychologically.

“I’ll drain him dry a hay, he shall live a mor forbid” (exp. of their evil)

”Show me show me” (exp. of their enthusiasm for evil)

All in all they feed each others evil, and like sharing their evil with each other.

MACBETH:

Up until the prophecy of the witches, we know Macbeth only as a war hero, as some who is looked up to. But right as the prophecy is given Macbeth presents himself as a very ambitious character. Although he is well aware that the witches are evil beings (Banquo mentions it several times) he is tempted by their prophecy, and cannot hold himself back from asking to know more. So with the prophecy his aspirations to power rise and his character changes.

“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man

That function is smothered in surmise,

And nothing is but what is not”

(He is saying that he doesn’t even really know who he is anymore, because of the evil he plans)

With this new personality, Macbeth also speaks rather deceiving towards the king; Duncan.

“The service and the loyalty I owe

In doing it pays itself.”

“Stars, hide your fires;

Let not light see my black and deep desires.” (His new personality)

BANQUO:

Just like Macbeth Banquo also has his own aspirations (He asks the witches to tell him something too).

“To me you speak not.

If you can look into the seeds of time

And say which grain will grow and which will not,

Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear

Your favors nor your hate.”

But unlike Macbeth, Banquo doesn’t blindly follow his ambition. He realized that something is wrong and that the witches will probably lure them to the evil-side.

“The agents of evil often tell us part of the truth in order to lead us to our destruction.”(This is also a foreshadowing of his death. He sees that it will end badly.)

MALCOLM:

Malcolm is only briefly introduced. He only speaks once, in which he says:

“Nothing in his life

Became him like the leaving it. He died

As one that had been studied in his death

To throw away the dearest thing he owed

As ’twere a careless trifle.”

Here he is judging the former thane of Cawdor for giving up things in life, which should have been most important to him. By this Malcolm means that he himself wouldn’t have just given up, he would have fought (he really does this: he comes back to be king).

In scene 4 of act 1 it is also mentioned that Malcolm has been named prince of Cumberland, which could be interpreted as a foreshadowing of him later on claiming the throne from Macbeth.

“Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter

The Prince of Cumberland”

DUNCAN:

Although Duncan is king, he does not come of as extremely arrogant or immodest. He accepts that he has been wrong, and he has no trouble sharing nobility.

“There’s no art

To find the mind’s construction in the face

He was a gentleman on whom I built

An absolute trust”

“Signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine

On all deservers”