Characters & Acting | Macbeth

The Examiner's Focus: The Character Arc

You will lose marks if you describe an actor playing Macbeth the exact same way in Act 1 as they do in Act 5. Macbeth is a tragedy about psychological decay. Examiners want you to explicitly contrast a character's vocal and physical skills at the beginning of their journey with their deteriorated state at the end.

Character Arc Profiles

Click a character below to explore how an actor should physically and vocally communicate their tragic journey across the play.

Macbeth

The Tragic Hero's Decay

Act 1: The Noble Warrior

Before the murder, Macbeth is a celebrated, brave soldier. His physicality should reflect absolute confidence, high status, and loyalty.

Voice: A loud, resonant volume and a steady, measured pace to show his authority and control.
Posture: Upright, open chest, feet planted firmly apart (a grounded, militaristic stance).
Eye Contact: Direct and unwavering when speaking to Duncan or Banquo, showing honesty.
Proxemics: He allows Lady Macbeth into his personal space, showing trust and an intimate bond.

Act 3-5: The Paranoid Tyrant

After the regicide, guilt and paranoia physically consume him. He becomes erratic, isolated, and disconnected from reality.

Voice: An erratic, staccato pace. He frequently shifts between a harsh, commanding bark to terrified, breathless whispers (especially when seeing Banquo's ghost).
Posture: Hunched shoulders, conveying the literal weight of his guilt and his stolen crown.
Movement: Pacing aggressively like a caged animal. Flinching at sudden noises.
Proxemics: He stands physically distant from everyone, including his wife, refusing to let anyone near him out of intense paranoia.

Lady Macbeth

From Dominance to Madness

Act 1-2: The Manipulator

She subverts Jacobean patriarchy by taking complete control. She is calculating, cold, and uses her sexuality and intellect as weapons to manipulate her husband.

Voice: A smooth, persuasive tone with a controlled, deliberate pace. When questioning his manhood, she uses a sharp, biting inflection.
Proxemics: Extremely invasive. She stands dangerously close to Macbeth, trapping him and invading his personal space to assert dominance.
Levels: She frequently stands on higher levels (stairs or platforms) to physically look down on Macbeth when commanding him.
Gestures: Pointed, sharp hand movements. Grabbing Macbeth's face or clothing to force his attention.

Act 5: The Broken Mind

The guilt she claimed she could easily wash away has entirely broken her psyche. She is isolated, sleepwalking, and stripped of all her former power.

Voice: A trembling pitch and a rapid, breathless, rambling pace. Her sentences are broken and repetitive, showing a total loss of intellectual control.
Gestures: Obsessive, frantic rubbing of her hands (trying to wash the invisible blood).
Eye Contact: Wide, unfocused eyes. She stares into the middle distance, completely ignoring the Doctor and Gentlewoman observing her.
Posture: Slumped and fragile, visually shrinking the actor to show she is now powerless.

The Witches

The Unnatural Prophecy

The Witches are not human. Their acting style must completely reject naturalism to terrify a Jacobean audience that genuinely believed in the demonic.

Non-Naturalistic Ensemble Skills

Choral Speaking: The actors must speak their lines in perfect, eerie unison. Hitting the hard consonants together creates an unnatural, echoing auditory effect.
Physical Theatre: Instead of walking normally, they should writhe, crawl, or move with sharp, jerky, insect-like motions to highlight their inhuman nature.
Levels & Proxemics: They should stay low to the ground (crouching or crawling) and clump tightly together, moving as a single, multi-limbed organism rather than three individuals.
Vocal Pitch: Alternating rapidly between a high-pitched, mocking screech and a low, guttural growl to unsettle the audience.

Banquo & Macduff

The Honorable Foils

A "foil" is a character whose noble traits highlight the fatal flaws of the protagonist. Both Banquo and Macduff represent the honor that Macbeth abandons.

Banquo (The Resistor)

Banquo hears the exact same prophecies as Macbeth, but his moral compass prevents him from acting on them. He represents loyalty and reason.

Voice: A calm, steady pace with a warm, open tone, contrasting directly with Macbeth's frantic, whispering paranoia in Act 3.
Posture: Relaxed but alert. He maintains an open chest and steady eye contact, showing he has nothing to hide.
As a Ghost: When returning as a hallucination, he should move slowly and silently, maintaining a dead-eyed, unbroken stare directly at Macbeth to maximize his psychological terror.

Macduff (The Avenger)

Macduff is driven by genuine grief and a desire to restore the natural order to Scotland, rather than personal ambition.

Act 4 (Grief): Upon hearing of his family's murder, the actor should physically collapse or drop to his knees. His voice should crack with genuine emotion, using long pauses to show shock.
Act 5 (Vengeance): In the final battle, his physicality becomes deeply grounded and aggressive. He uses a booming, projected volume, driven by righteous fury rather than the frantic panic of Macbeth.

📝 AO3/AO4 Examiner Sentence Generator

Use these pre-structured sentences in your exam to instantly hit the top marking bands for vocal and physical acting skills.

Directorial Choice (What)	Impact Justification (Why)	Key Terminology
I would direct Macbeth to speak with an erratic, staccato pace and a harsh, whispering tone, whilst constantly darting his eyes around the stage.	This frantic combination of vocal and physical skills visibly demonstrates his psychological decay. It proves to the audience that his guilt over the regicide has completely consumed him with paranoia.	Vocal Pace Staccato Eye Contact Paranoia