Macbeth is a very complex character. His transformation from a courageous and devoted subject to a manipulative and cold-blooded tyrant deserves some attention.
At he beginning of the play, Macbeth is praised and admired for his bravery, loyalty and attachment to his king. It is implied that everyone looks up to him and values him as a person. However, as soon as Macbeth's secret ambition of becoming the king is awakened, we sense that he has many facets to his personality, many of which are negative. He lets his "black and deep desires" take over, succumbing to the power of his unrestrained ambition. His thirst for power and supremacy proves to be too hard to be suppressed:
I have no spur
To prick the sides of my intent, but only
Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
And falls on the other.
Once he kills king Duncan for the sake of becoming the king and many others who he felt threatened by, Macbeth becomes a cold-blooded murderer, devoid of scruples and benevolence. However, it would be wrong to characterize him as a completely unlikable character. This is because, in his soliloquies, he tells us about his fears, doubts and disenchantment with the world. We realize that no matter how evil he seems to be, he is still human on the inside. No act of atrocity on his part can change the fact that he is still a human being who made some terrible choices in his life and who we, at least once in the play, felt sympathy for. His actions cannot evoke mercy because they are unpardonable, but readers are allowed to feel sorry for him because he could have been a great leader had he not surrendered to his evil intentions.
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