(V, vii, ll 36-37). Macduff is justified in killing Macbeth. Malcolm shows what type of person he is by realizing the great injustices under the reign of Macbeth and then leading the revolt against him. Although the character Macbeth was mostly immoral and amoral, he did have morals at the beginning of the novel. He was a great warrior who was liked by most everyone. Everyone thought highly of him. Duncan thought so highly of him that he gave him the title Thane of Cawdor. Finally, of all three types of moralities, characters having morals were most dominant.
Second, there were some characters that knew what was right and wrong but chose to ignore their consciences. These people are known to be immoral. Lady Macbeth was the largest example of immorality. After reading Macbeth’s letter, she devised a plan to murder the king, obviously knowing it is wrong to kill a king. Yet she convinces Macbeth to murder the king. She attempted to ignore her conscience so much that she summoned evil to aid her in doing so.
Unsex me here,
And fill me from the crown to
the toe top full of direst cruelty;
make thick my blood,
Stop up the access and passage to remorse
(I, v, ll 40-44)
Lady Macbeth says this to rid her of her conscience that being a female forces her to have. Macbeth knows not to kill the king but lets himself be persuaded to do so. At the beginning of act I, scene vii Macbeth attempts to convince himself not to kill the king. Later on in the play when Macbeth is at the Banquet, the ghost of Banquo haunts him. The ghost is self-delusional meaning his conscience is getting to him. In summary, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were the only characters to possess immoral qualities in the play.
In addition to moral and immoral, there is also amoral. Amoral is when a person has no idea what is right and wrong. The witches qualified for being amoral the most. They played into this category throughout the whole play. The witches betrayed Macbeth and Banquo with half true predictions. They confused Macbeth again with three more prophecies, which led to Macbeth’s death. The witches generally disregarded others, as shown when Macbeth tried to talk to them to find out more about the predictions they made. Overall the witches appeared crazy. Macbeth was an amoral character at the end of the play. He ordered his servants to do odd things or jobs. Macbeth literally went crazy when he saw Birnam wood advance towards his castle. When he was informed of his wife committing suicide he was calm and seemed to almost not care. He acted erratic towards everyone around him. Macbeth demanded his armor and when suited up fought till his death, fighting for a hopeless cause. This will to die shown by Macbeth was a sign of ignorance to what was right and wrong. Lady Macbeth commits an act that is a more prominent example of ignorance; she kills herself. This, also, was near the end of the play. Before killing herself, Lady Macbeth talked in her sleep about the blood on her hands and how she could not get it off her. She was bedridden most of the time before her death because she was acting crazy. Finally, of the entire main character cast in Macbeth, only the witches, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were amoral at some time during the play.
In summation, three types of morality was found in the play Macbeth, these three were moral, immoral and amoral. Shakespeare is a well-known play writer with a renowned ability for developing characters personalities. In Macbeth, Shakespeare illustrates his ability well by defining each character’s level of morality.