What Do We Learn About Macbeth in the Opening Chapters?

We learn in scene two that Macbeth is a very brave man and a fearsome warrior. This contrasts with what we have seen in act one, so we do not yet know much about Macbeth. We do know however that he is to be made Thane of Cawdor after the current Thane is put to death for his treacherous ways. The title Thane of Cawdor is now associated with treachery, and, as Macbeth is now the Thane he can now be associated with treachery.

In scene three we meet Macbeth. He is again associated in our minds with the witches, as in his first scene he speaks to the witches. When Macbeth is promised that he will become Thane of Cawdor and king, we can see great ambition in Macbeth when he takes the witches seriously and immediately begins to think about killing the king. We also see some loyalty in Macbeth when he rejects the idea of killing the king. His believing the witches also suggests his trusting nature.

In scene four we see that Macbeth shares everything with his wife. His wife tells us some things about Macbeth's character. She tells us that he is ambitious, but not ruthless enough to do anything with that ambition. In this scene we see how Macbeth is dominated by his wife and does what she tells him too. She tells Macbeth that they will murder the king that night.

In these opening scenes the characteristics we see in Macbeth are ambition, bravery, loyalty, a trusting nature, and possibly treacherousness or evilness. We also see that in his relationship with wife, she is the leader and he does what she tells him to do.