It is clear that Macbeth is well respected in the beginning of the play because of the sergeant´s report. The sergeants report made Macbeth sound gallant and the traitor Mackdonwald sound ruthless and not worthy of being killed by Macbeth. For example: "Merciless Mackdonwald" and "brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)". The sergeant spoke with passion as he described Macbeth cutting through crowds of people to face Mackdonwald:
"Brandished steel….smoked with bloody execution….carved out his passage….till he faced the slave…unseamed him from the naves to the chops".
The sergeant then describes how Macbeth:
"fixed his head upon our battlements".
Macbeth would of done this to show his victory and to prove to everyone on the battlefields who is the bravest. This portrays Macbeth to be a very ruthless character capable of killing in single combat. However, this is interesting as further into the play we find at first Macbeth is unable to murder the king.
The sergeant also talks about how Macbeth and Banquo were so ferocious that he described them as:
"cannons overcharged with double cracks".
This quote means that Macbeth and Banquo were nearly exploding with aggressiveness and the adrenaline needed to kill. Ross describes Macbeth as: "Bellona´s bridegroom". Bellona was the Greek Goddess of war, so to be her bridegroom you would have to be as equally warlike or more. We can conceive from this that Macbeth was someone that is brave on the battlefield and he is respected by many people. There does not yet seem to be any maliciousness involved in his behaviour.
In this scene of Macbeth, his ambition starts to make him become more demanding and selfish, we see his second nature start to become stronger. When he firsts meets the witches, Macbeth is frightened by them because they know so much about him. Upon greeting him they mention his name and hail him "Thane of Glamis".
Their predictions arouses his fear:
"Why do you…fear things that….sound so fair"
What the witches predict is that he will become thane of Cawdor and become king. What makes Macbeth wary is that the present king has not proclaimed him his successor. Therefore in order for Macbeth to claim the throne he must murder Duncan, the present king. A picture of Macbeth is emerging portraying him as an ambitious character capable of contemplating murder. We can tell Macbeth is contemplating murder because after he´s been told he is Thane of Cawdor, he is thinking about being king and say´s:
"Whose murder yet is but fantastical".
So the witches predictions scare Macbeth because he doesn´t know weather he will react to them rationally. Before the witches are about to leave, Macbeth´s ambition makes him eager to hear more from them and he demands to hear more:
"Stay you imperfect speakers…speak, I charge you".
Macbeth´s conscience tells him not to think about the murder but his ambition tells him otherwise. So he thinks that as he became Thane of Cawdor by doing nothing, then perhaps if he did nothing again he would become king, he tells himself this because he does not want to think that he has to commit murder to achieve his goal:
"Chance will have me king".
This scene is very important because it is a major step towards Macbeth changing into a more ruthless character. The witches have already implanted the thought of becoming king into Macbeth so he now has been reminded about the idea and could easily become obsessed with it.
Duncan
Duncan may be a symbol of goodness and grace in the play. When he nominates Malcolm as his heir, he calls for signs of nobleness to invest his son. In his soliloquy (Act I,Sc.vii) Macbeth pays tribute to him as one who "Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been So clear in his great office that his virtues Will plead like angels, trumpet tongu'd against The deep damnation of his taking off." Macduff (Act II,Sc.iii) refers to the dead Duncan as "The Lord's anointed temple" (a symbol of the divine right of a lawful King to rule).
