What light is shed on Macbeth's character through his interactions with the witches, Banquo, and Macduff?.
Macbeth is a play which, through the protagonist's interaction with a variety of dissimilar characters, explores the deterioration and disintegration of a tragic hero who fails to make tha right moral choices in life, and as a consequence brings about chaos, sufferings, and ultimately death. He starts off as a great warrior, high in both status and reputation. But he has a deep desire inside his heart. When he is tempted by the prophecies, he is tested for his own inner strength and ability to fight the dark side of himself. Banquo and Macduff have both shown that they are strong and do not yield to temptation, providing a contrast to the weak-willed Macbeth, whose dark side is revealed by the three witches throughout the play. It is this flaw, his over-vaulting ambition, that made him take his first step towards his downfall - murdering King Duncan. As the play goes on, Macbeth ventures further into darkness, and makes more and more wrong moral discisions, until all his friends desert him, and he is left to die. His change of character from the mighty and loyal warrior to the treacherous and savage King, who ultimately, dies, can be revealed through his interactions with the three witches, Banquo and Macduff. .
The witches, like in most other situations, are used to symolise "the intruments of darkness" and evil spirits. Their role in the play is to reveal Macbeth's potential to be evil. He first meets them on the day when he gains victory in war. Though Macbeth's fierce ambition is present before the witch's prophesies, he would never have thought seriously about killing Duncan without the witches. Yet the combination of both his ambitious nature and the promising prophesies leads him to kill the king. Macbeth's deep-seated desire to become King is shown in his eagerness to hear more prophecies.
