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How can I write an essay on Shakespeare's character of Macbeth?

Whether Macbeth's character is good or evil is sort of the big, tough question.  It's big because there is so much evidence to sort through, and it is tough because there is evidence to support each argument!  In my view, Macbeth starts off good and then, as a result of his interactions with the Weird Sisters and his wife as well as his own ambition and pride, he is corrupted and becomes evil.  Initially, Macbeth is thought of as "brave" and loyal, to the point that the king rewards him for his services to the crown (1.2.18).  His wife, the person who arguably knows him the best, feels that he is "full o' th' milk of human kindness" in the beginning (1.5.17).  His best friend is Banquo, a man we know to be good and loyal as well, and this friendship would seem to indicate Macbeth's goodness too.


However, once the Weird Sisters tell him that he will become Thane of Cawdor and king, and he becomes Thane of Cawdor, he begins to dream of what it would be like to be king, even acquainting his wife with the news because he knows how happy it will make her to consider what "greatness is promised" to her (1.5.13).  He recognizes his own "Vaulting ambition," which might propel him forward, but it isn't really enough until his wife wounds his pride (1.7.27).  When he tries to bail out of their plan, she calls him a "coward" and implies that he will not really be a man unless he goes through with it (1.7.47).  After she insults him enough to compel him to recommit, he begins the descent into evil.  After he murders Duncan, he soon feels the need to kill Banquo (his former best friend) and Banquo's son, Fleance, in order to secure his position.  Next, when Macbeth becomes enraged that the Thane of Fife, Macduff, has escaped him, he brutally murders Macduff's wife and children and even servants.  Each murder becomes increasingly more atrocious to the audience as Macbeth descends into evil and becomes more and more ruthless and unscrupulous.

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