Character Development in Macbeth: Act 1

I read Macbeth my sophomore year of high school, and although I remember the general gist of the story, I had forgotten how quickly things escalate in the first act. Let’s look at the sequence of events that Macbeth goes through. First, he is told by the witches that he is going to be the thane of Cawdor, and also he “that shalt be king hereafter” (Act 1, Scene 3, Line 51). Originally, Macbeth is confused by this, because he does not yet know that he has been made thane of Cawdor, but when he learns that he is, he starts to take the word of the witches as gospel. For instance, when Duncan’s son Malcolm is named the Prince of Cumberland, Macbeth says in an aside that the Prince of Cumberland, “is a step on which I must fall down or else o’erleap” (Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 48-49). In just two scenes, Macbeth has gone from loyal servant to the king to actively wondering how he is going to overcome the king’s son.

An even quicker transition is that of Lady Macbeth. We don’t really know what she’s like previously, but we know that she is plotting the murder of Duncan very shortly after receiving the news that Macbeth is prophesied to be king. There are also several mentions of unhinged behavior throughout Lady Macbeth’s lines, which makes it seem more in character for her to want to grab the power right away. Moving back to Macbeth himself, although it feels uncharacteristic for the “hero” to be resorting to selfish and malicious motives already, it does foreshadow the rest of the story and the nature of the events to come.