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Macbeth tells the classic story of how the greed for power corrupts. Having been told that absolute power is possible, Macbeth's greed begins to consume him and erode his moral compass. Where he begins as a humble soldier, he soon becomes an amoral and bloodthirsty traitor willing to stop at nothing to consolidate his rule. Likewise, Lady Macbeth's musings on ambition lead her to invoke dark spirits which will fill her with the cruelty she needs to assist her husband in his quest for power. Macbeth's greed for the throne also outweighs his practical considerations: each of his actions seems, to him, a means to an end, but once he has acquired power, maintaining his position as King still requires constant violence, oppression and elimination of threat.

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Fate and free will are in careful balance in Macbeth. From the moment the Witches prophesise of Macbeth's future power, he feels himself controlled by fate and not complicitTo be involved with others in an unlawful or morally wrong activity.  in the actions he takes to bring it about. He feels that fate has dictated his evil actions, and that he is no longer responsible for them, despite the fact that he still has free will. He says in the first Act that "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me/Without my stir", but, impatient for the prophecy to come about, he decides to bring it into his own hands. The play makes it clear that free will and fate are not in conflict, and that fate does not remove agency. Rather, where fate dictates what will come to pass, how it comes to pass is decided by choice and free will.

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Neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth are born or natural murderers, and both at the start deeply want to avoid senseless murder. They have to force a separation from their own humanity in order to kill and conspire to kill, and the act of murder corrupts their souls. The erosion of Macbeth's conscience can be tracked: having killed Duncan, he fears that he will never sleep again, but his later massacre of Macduff's unprotected wife and children signals his descent into pure, amoral tyrannyCruel and aggressive use of power, often used to describe countries under the grip of a single oppressive leader..

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Though Macbeth sees the throne of medieval Scotland as his divine right due to the prophecy of the witches, his rule brings nothing less than chaos. From the beginning, his seat on the throne portends a calamitousDisastrous. future, as the land is plagued with bad weather and unexplainable, potentially supernatural occurrences before and after he ascends. And where Duncan tends to be referred to as the King, Macbeth never earns this title and is continuously referred to as a tyrant presiding over a reign of terror, a reputation solidified when he begins to murder children to consolidate his rule. These factors suggest that Macbeth's despoticTyrannical or using unlimited power over others in a cruel way. rule throws Scotland into hopeless tyranny. Yet King Duncan's reign did not seem peaceful either: Macbeth's military heroics imply that Scotland has had a long spell of violent conflict which may hint to a long line of tyrannical kings.

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Guilt manifests itself in a range of ways in Macbeth. Most famously, Macbeth is haunted by Banquo's ghost, which only he can see, at a feast. Becoming deranged, he shouts "hence, horrible shadow! Unreal mockery, hence!". Lady Macbeth also suffers hallucinations and all-consuming guilt, which eventually send her mad and cause her suicide. The deeply stirring effects that guilt has on the couple suggest that neither of them has entirely lost their humanity, even by the play's conclusion.

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