Edexcel IGCSE Literature

Macbeth — Characters

Arcs, motivations and key quotations for the play’s central figures.

Macbeth

Tragic protagonist - Scottish general, then king, then tyrant

Macbeth begins the play as a 'brave' and 'noble' war hero, praised by Duncan as 'valiant cousin, worthy gentleman'. But his 'vaulting ambition' - activated by the witches' prophecy and weaponised by his wife - drives him to regicide. As king he becomes paranoid and tyrannical, ordering the murder of Banquo, Fleance and Macduff's family. By Act 5 he is emotionally hollow, clinging to the witches' equivocations. Shakespeare frames him as a classical tragic hero: a noble figure destroyed by a single fatal flaw (hamartia).

Character arc

Loyal warrior → reluctant murderer → tyrant → nihilist → dead

Key quotes

"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself" (1.7)
"Is this a dagger which I see before me?" (2.1)
"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" (2.2)
"O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!" (3.2)
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" (5.5)

Lady Macbeth

Macbeth's wife - the architect of Duncan's murder

In her first scene Lady Macbeth calls on 'spirits that tend on mortal thoughts' to 'unsex' her and fill her 'from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty'. She is initially the stronger partner, shaming Macbeth into committing regicide by questioning his manhood. But the partnership reverses. As Macbeth hardens, she is excluded from his plans - 'be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck' - and her suppressed guilt erupts in the sleepwalking scene: 'Out, damned spot!' Her implied suicide is a dark mirror of Macbeth's soldierly death.

Character arc

Ruthless plotter → sidelined accomplice → sleepwalking ghost → suicide

Key quotes

"Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here" (1.5)
"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't" (1.5)
"When you durst do it, then you were a man" (1.7)
"A little water clears us of this deed" (2.2)
"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" (5.1)

Banquo

Macbeth's fellow general - a moral foil

Banquo hears the same prophecy as Macbeth - that his descendants will be kings - but resists temptation. He is cautious: he warns that 'instruments of darkness' can tell 'truths' only to betray us. After Duncan's murder he suspects Macbeth of foul play but does nothing. Macbeth has him murdered, but Banquo's ghost returns to haunt the banquet - a symbol of Macbeth's inescapable guilt. Banquo was also believed to be an ancestor of James I, which is why Shakespeare flatters him.

Character arc

Loyal companion → silent suspicion → victim → ghost

Key quotes

"’Tis strange; and oftentimes to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths" (1.3)
"Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all... and I fear thou play'dst most foully for't" (3.1)
"Let your highness command upon me" (3.1)

Duncan

King of Scotland - the victim

Duncan is the ideal Jacobean monarch: trusting, grateful, generous. He showers Macbeth with rewards and praises his wife's 'great love'. Shakespeare deliberately makes him gentle so that his murder feels monstrous. To a Jacobean audience, killing a king was not just a political crime but a sin against God - regicide disturbs the natural order, which is why the play is flooded with omens.

Character arc

Gracious king → trusting guest → murdered

Key quotes

"This castle hath a pleasant seat" (1.6)
"He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust" (1.4, of the previous Thane of Cawdor - dramatic irony)
"More is thy due than more than all can pay" (1.4, to Macbeth)

Macduff

Thane of Fife - Macbeth's avenger

Macduff is the moral counterweight to Macbeth. He refuses to attend Macbeth's coronation at Scone, flees to England, and joins Malcolm. His grief at the slaughter of his wife and children - 'all my pretty chickens and their dam at one fell swoop' - is one of the play's rawest moments, and Shakespeare uses it to model healthy masculine grief against the toxic version Lady Macbeth demanded of her husband. Being 'from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd', he fulfils the prophecy and kills Macbeth.

Character arc

Suspicious nobleman → exile → grieving father → avenger

Key quotes

"O horror, horror, horror!" (2.3)
"He has no children" (4.3)
"I shall do so; but I must also feel it as a man" (4.3)
"Turn, hell-hound, turn!" (5.8)
"Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd" (5.8)

The Witches

Supernatural agents - the catalysts

The three weird sisters open the play and set its tragedy in motion. They are ambiguous figures: do they <em>control</em> Macbeth, or merely see and name what he already desires? They speak in riddles and rhyming trochees, separating them linguistically from everyone else. For a Jacobean audience steeped in James I's <em>Daemonologie</em>, they would have been genuinely terrifying agents of the devil. Shakespeare uses them to probe the question of fate versus free will.

Character arc

Prophecy → temptation → equivocation → destruction

Key quotes

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (1.1)
"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!" (1.3)
"Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble" (4.1)
"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" (4.1)

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Macbeth by William Shakespeare is in the public domain. Quotations are reproduced freely.

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Edexcel IGCSE Literature

Macbeth — Characters

Arcs, motivations and key quotations for the play’s central figures.

Macbeth

Tragic protagonist - Scottish general, then king, then tyrant

Character arc

Loyal warrior → reluctant murderer → tyrant → nihilist → dead

Key quotes

"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself" (1.7)
"Is this a dagger which I see before me?" (2.1)
"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand?" (2.2)
"O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!" (3.2)
"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow" (5.5)

Lady Macbeth

Macbeth's wife - the architect of Duncan's murder

Character arc

Ruthless plotter → sidelined accomplice → sleepwalking ghost → suicide

Key quotes

"Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here" (1.5)
"Look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under't" (1.5)
"When you durst do it, then you were a man" (1.7)
"A little water clears us of this deed" (2.2)
"Out, damned spot! Out, I say!" (5.1)

Banquo

Macbeth's fellow general - a moral foil

Character arc

Loyal companion → silent suspicion → victim → ghost

Key quotes

"’Tis strange; and oftentimes to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths" (1.3)
"Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all... and I fear thou play'dst most foully for't" (3.1)
"Let your highness command upon me" (3.1)

Duncan

King of Scotland - the victim

Character arc

Gracious king → trusting guest → murdered

Key quotes

"This castle hath a pleasant seat" (1.6)
"He was a gentleman on whom I built an absolute trust" (1.4, of the previous Thane of Cawdor - dramatic irony)
"More is thy due than more than all can pay" (1.4, to Macbeth)

Macduff

Thane of Fife - Macbeth's avenger

Character arc

Suspicious nobleman → exile → grieving father → avenger

Key quotes

"O horror, horror, horror!" (2.3)
"He has no children" (4.3)
"I shall do so; but I must also feel it as a man" (4.3)
"Turn, hell-hound, turn!" (5.8)
"Macduff was from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd" (5.8)

The Witches

Supernatural agents - the catalysts

Character arc

Prophecy → temptation → equivocation → destruction

Key quotes

"Fair is foul, and foul is fair" (1.1)
"All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!" (1.3)
"Double, double, toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble" (4.1)
"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" (4.1)

The English Hub is an independent educational platform. Full disclaimer

Macbeth by William Shakespeare is in the public domain. Quotations are reproduced freely.

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Macbeth — Characters

Macbeth

Key quotes

Lady Macbeth

Key quotes

Banquo

Key quotes

Duncan

Key quotes

Macduff

Key quotes

The Witches

Key quotes

Macbeth — Characters

Macbeth

Key quotes

Lady Macbeth

Key quotes

Banquo

Key quotes

Duncan

Key quotes

Macduff

Key quotes

The Witches

Key quotes