After hearing the witches’ prophecy, Macbeth write a letter to his wife, in which he tells her about the prophecy and his thoughts. The fact that he needs to talk to his wife make the intelligent reader understand that Macbeth is a weak person, who “is too full o’ the milk of human kindness”, and is not merciless enough “To catch the nearest way”. It also become obvious that his wife is very important to Macbeth, as underlined when he calls his wife “my dearest partner of greatness”. He also believe in the supernatural, as we can understand from the expressions “they have more in them than mortal knowledge” and “what greatness is promised me”. The second expression also make us understand that he strongly believe in the prophecy and he has no doubt that one day he will be king of Scotland, as the witches said. He is sure that the prophecy will become reality, but is afraid of that, as everyone in the Middle Ages would have been. He wants the glory, not the power, as we can understand from the letter, because he says nothing about the power he gains as thane of Cawdor and will gain as king; on the contrary he uses expressions as “all-hailed me”, “the day of success” and “referred me with ‘Hail”.

Lady Macbeth, who made her first appearance, is described as a woman with a strong character. She is not afraid of the prophecy, but, on the contrary, she wants to make it real as soon as possible. That strong will, the fact she is not afraid from the prophecy and that she desire the power make Lady Macbeth an evil character, with no mercy and ready to do everything to reach her goals. She also consider her husband a weak person, who “is too full o’ the milk of human kindness”, a baby who is too kind to act as, in her opinion, he should: killing the king