The character of Macbeth is a progressive one. As the play proceeds, his good qualities disappear while the evil become more and more developed. His encounters with the witches show the degradation in his personality. At the beginning, Macbeth is shown as strong character with a strong personality. "For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name- disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution, like valor's minion carved out his passage till he faced the slave; which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him, till he unseamed him from the nave to th' chops, And fixed his head upon our battlements" (1.2.16-23). But when he first met the witches, he shows that weak predisposition that characterizes him in the first part of the play. "It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way" (1.5.4-5). Macbeth tries to intimidate the witches not only with his physical appearance, but also with his words. "Speak, if you can: what are you?" (1.3.49). In the other hand, this interventions let the audience realize how Macbeth's inquisitiveness is clear evidence of his lack of self confidence, since he shows to need the witches' help.
Though the witches not only reveal his initial personality, they also show how Macbeth's ambition increases when they tell him his children won't be king. "Your descendants will be kings, even though you will not be one. So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!" (1.3.68-69). Something has to happen to make Banquo's children take the throne, and Macbeth knows it won't be good for him. "Then, prophet-like, they hailed him father to a line of kings. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and put a barren scepter in my grip, thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand, no son of mine succeeding" (3.1.62-67). This fact makes Macbeth be no longer that indecisive. ".the seed of Banquo kings! Rather than so, come fate into the list, and champion me to th' utterance" (3.
