MACBETH
Macbeth is presented as a mature man of definitely established character, successful in certain fields of activity and enjoying a greedy reputation. We must not conclude, there, that all his violations and actions are
predictable; Macbeth's character, like any other man's at a given moment, is what is being made out of likelihood plus environment, and no one, not even Macbeth himself, can know all his inordinate self-love whose actions are discovered to be-and no doubt have been for a long time- determined mainly by an inordinate desire for some temporal or mutable good.
Macbeth is actuated in his conduct mainly by an inordinate desire for worldly honors; his delight lies primarily in buying golden opinions from all sorts of people. But 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 in it is traceable in art to the natural pleasure which accompanies the explosive expenditure of prodigious physical energy and the euphoria which follows.
English: Poster of Thos. W. Keene in William Shake...
Macbeth and Banquo with the Witches by Henry Fusel...
Macbeth and Banquo Meeting the Three Witches by Jo...He also rejoices no doubt in the success which crowns his efforts in battle - and so on. He may 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 but dimly at best and are obscured in his consciousness by more vigorous urges. In the main, as we have said, 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 and royal favor heaped upon him in public. Now so long as these...