Macbeth is presented as a mature man of definitely established character, successful in certain fields of activity and enjoying an enviable reputation. However, we must not conclude that all his volitions and actions are predictable. Macbeth's character, like all mortal men, can choose any path he wishes, but is driven by some inordinate desire for some temporal or mutable good. .
Macbeth is actuated in his conduct mainly by an excessive desire for worldly honors; his delight lies primarily in buying golden opinions from all sorts of people. We must not, therefore, deny him an entirely human complexity of motives. For example, his fighting in Duncan's service is magnificent and courageous, and his evident joy is traceable in art to the natural pleasure which accompanies the expenditure of physical energy and the euphoria which follows. He also rejoices, no doubt, in the success which crowns his efforts in battle. He even conceived of the proper motive which should energize back of his great deed: "The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself." But while he destroys the king's enemies, such motives work dimly at best and are obscured in his consciousness by more vigorous urges. .
In the main, his nature violently demands rewards: he fights valiantly in order that he may be reported in such terms a "valour's minion" and "Bellona's bridegroom." He values success because it brings spectacular fame and new titles of royal favor heaped upon him in public. Now so long as these mutable goods are at all commensurate with his inordinate desires, Macbeth remains an honorable gentleman. He is not a criminal; he has no criminal tendencies. Much of Macbeth's natural good remains unimpaired; environment has conspired with his nature to make him upright in all his dealings with those about him. His moral goodness, however, is undeveloped and indeed still rudimentary, for his voluntary acts are scarcely brought into harmony with his ultimate end.
