hear from the play, but from the actions he takes in the play. Killing Banquo, then having Lady Macduff and her children murdered, shows the insecurity that was present in Macbeth. After the murder of Duncan, Macbeth becomes paranoid and his first step of killing the guards is one of many that he takes to secure himself. Macbeth is also very superstitious and this is shown when he believes the prophecy the witches told him about Banquo’s offspring becoming Kings. Towards the end of the play when Macbeth’s wife has died and the battle is drawing closer Macbeth shows some potential good. He wishes for a normal life in which he would have lived to an honorable age but he recognizes that he has ruined any chance of that. Even when Macbeth hears that the prophecy has come true of Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane, he rejects this idea and fights on until he realizes that Macduff wasn’t born in a natural birth but instead was "Untimely ripped" from his mother’s womb. When Macbeth hears of this he realizes what he has done and how he has been tricked by the witches. Although he has come to that realization, he continues to fight only to be slain in the end. Macbeth can be summarized as a character who is physically strong but he is mentally very weak and it is this weakness which causes his downfall and change. Other factors do however also contribute to this change such as his wife whose ambition is very strong at first and is much stronger mentally than Macbeth. It is also Macbeth’s ambition and his trust in the witches which ultimately change him. Lady Macbeth seems to be almost opposite compared to that of Macbeth in physical and mental power. Lady Macbeth is the person who is able to persuade Macbeth into killing Duncan, assuring Macbeth that it will succeed, as Lady Macbeth’s ambition is far greater than that of Macbeth. This change in the character of Lady Macbeth is appare...
