Macbeth Characters

Macbeth Characters guide

The Three Witches: Introduced to us in the opening scene, the Three Witches set Macbeth upon his murderous path. They tell Macbeth that he will be Thane (Lord) of Cawdor and later the King. Later by use of the Three Apparitions, they foretell his doom. Symbolic of both the underworld and the mysticism of the 1500s, they are synonymous with the theme of evil in this play.

Macbeth: The tragic focus of this play. Originally a loyal and honest man, his descent into murder and betrayal is the tale of how ambition can tarnish even the purest of souls. Driven by loyalty to King Duncan, his own "Vaulting ambition," leads to him killing King Duncan to secure his own destiny. The man at the end of play is one we would barely recognize from the loyal Macbeth we meet at the beginning.

Lady Macbeth: Macbeth's wife. Her ambition for Macbeth's future rivals and arguably exceeds that of Macbeth's. She goads Macbeth to kill King Duncan when Macbeth hesitates. Later despite the appearance of calm, she becomes increasingly obsessed with the blood on her hands which no one else can see. A study of the apparent falsehood of denying ones conscience and feelings.

Banquo: Loyal friend of Macbeth. He bares witness to the initial prophecies made by the Three Witches. Though eager to learn his own destiny, Banquo serves as a counterpoint to how one deals with fate. Macbeth kills to reach his. Banquo is content to let destiny carve it's own path. Later killed to preserve Macbeth's status, he reappears as a ghost.

Fleance: Son of Banquo and the first in a line of kings prophesied by the Three Witches. Escaping when his father was killed, Fleance represents a future Macbeth cannot bear; a line of kings following Banquo and not his own sons.

Duncan, King of Scotland: The loyal but naïve, trusting King. At the beginning of the play when Duncan is betrayed by the original Thane of Cawdor, he grants this title upon the loyal Macbeth who secured the King victory in battle against this Thane of Cawdor. Ironically, King Duncan later dies at the sword of the trusted Macbeth, the new Thane of Cawdor. His death sets up the theme of the natural order being disturbed, later alluded to by the Old Man.

Malcolm & Donalbain: The two sons of King Duncan. Upon their father's death, they flee to avoid a similar fate. Donalbain heads to Ireland, whilst Malcolm heads to England where he hopes to build an army to take back the kingdom from the evil Macbeth.

Macduff: Born unnaturally by caesarian section, this nobleman of Scotland restores Malcolm to his rightful place as king. Alluded to by The Second Apparition as an agent of Macbeth's downfall, he loses his wife and children to Macbeth who had them murdered.

"Holes" - Characters

Stanley Yelnats - The novel's protagonist, Stanley is an overweight kid with a lot of bad luck. He is convicted of a crime he did not commit and is sent to the Camp Green Lake juvenile detention center. Non-violent and generally kind, Stanley has a difficult time in school and at the camp. Through his experience at the hellish Camp Green Lake he becomes physically stronger and more self-confident. He befriends Zero, another boy at the camp and through this friendship he succeeds in eradicating his family curse.

Zero - Zero is another camper at Camp Green Lake who becomes friends with Stanley. Zero is the best digger and generally thought to be stupid by the counselors and the other boys. In truth, Zero is very smart, although he has never been taught how to read. Zero is the great-great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni, the woman who put a curse on Stanley's family. Zero has suffered many hardships in his life, even more than Stanley, but he never completely despairs and always shows incredible strength and willpower.

X-Ray - X-Ray is the leader of the group of boys at Camp Green Lake. Although he is small and cannot see well, he manages to take charge and have the other boys follow his orders. He is nice to Stanley when Stanley gives him the gold tube that he finds in the dirt.

Squid - Squid is another boy at the camp. He is as tough as X-Ray, although he often follows X-Ray's directions. Squid often taunts Stanley about receiving letters from, and writing to, his mother. When Stanley is allowed to leave the camp, Squid reveals that he also cares about his mother and he asks Stanley to call her and tell her that he, Squid, is sorry.

Magnet - Another boy at the camp, Magnet earned his nickname by his ability to steal things. "My fingers are like little magnets," he claims after he steals Mr. Sir's sunflower seeds in Chapter 19.

Armpit - Along with Squid, Armpit seems to be one of X-Ray's closest companions. He is the one that pushes Stanley to the floor when Stanley forgets to call him by his nickname. It is also Armpit who the Warden gets angry at when she realizes that the boys are not digging up what she wants in Chapter 17.

Zigzag - Stanley thinks Zigzag is the weirdest kid at Camp Green Lake. Zigzag is very violent and does not even apologize to Stanley after hitting him in the head with a shovel.

Warden - The Warden is the ultimate symbol of cruel authority at Camp Green Lake. She rewards only those who do what she wants and uses her power to threaten everyone else. She has hidden cameras that she uses to spy on the boys and nail polish with rattlesnake venom that she will use to scratch those who displease her. She is a descendent of Charles and Linda Walker and is making the boys dig holes in an attempt to dig up Kate Barlow's treasure.

Kate Barlow - Kate Barlow is the schoolteacher-turned-outlaw who robbed Stanley's great- grandfather. She lived on Green Lake one hundred and ten years ago, when there was still water in it.While intelligent and kind by nature, the murder of her beloved Sam turns Kate into a violent outlaw who lives on the wrong side of the law.

Sam - Sam and Kate were in love one hundred and ten years ago. Sam knew how to make many medicinal remedies out of onions and he was strong and smart. He also loved his donkey, Mary Lou. Because he was black, Sam suffered from racism, which prevented him from attending school or being with Kate. Sam is killed by the racist people of Green Lake after he and Kate kiss.

Charles Walker - Charles is the son of the richest family in Green Lake at the same time that Kate Barlow is the school teacher. He is spoiled and stupid and gets upset when things are denied to him. When Kate Barlow refuses to go out with him he becomes very angry. It is Charles who leads the citizens of Green Lake to burn down the schoolhouse and kill Sam after he kisses Kate. Charles also has a very bad foot odor caused by a fungus. For this reason people call him Trout, because his feet smell like dead fish.

Elya Yelnats - Elya is Stanley's great-great-grandfather and the reason that Stanley's family has such bad luck. After becoming disillusioned with the woman he thought he loved in Latvia, Elya travels to America, forgetting to fulfill a promise that he made to the gypsy, Madame Zeroni. Elya passes down generations of bad luck to his family. He also passes down the song that Madame Zeroni taught him while he was still in Latvia.

Madame Zeroni - Madame Zeroni is the great-great-great-grandmother of Hector Zeroni, Stanley's friend at Camp Green Lake. She gave Stanley's great-great-grandfather a pig but when he broke his promise of carrying her to the top of a mountain she might have put a curse on his family.

Stanley Yelnats I - The first Stanley Yelnats is the son of Elya Yelnats and the great-grandfather of the protagonist Stanley. Kate Barlow robbed the first Stanley Yelnats of his fortune while he was moving from New York to California. He survived by climbing to the top of a thumb shaped mountain (which he called God's thumb) which happened to be Sam's old onion field.

Mrs. Yelnats - Mrs. Yelnats is Stanley Yelnats' mother. She does not believe in curses and always tries to point out the luck that the Yelnats' have had.

Mr. Yelnats - Mr. Yelnats is Stanley's father. He is an inventor who is smart and persistent, but unlucky. His attempts to discover a way to recycle old sneakers cause the Yelnats' apartment to smell very bad. Eventually he discovers a cure to foot odor and is able to hire the lawyer, Ms. Morengo to get Stanley out of Camp Green Lake.

Mr. Sir - Mr. Sir is one of the counselors at Camp Green Lake. He is tough and mean and is constantly eating sunflower seeds.

Mr. Pendanski - Mr. Pendanski is in charge of tent D, Stanley's tent at Camp Green Lake. He seems to be friendly but really he is just as mean as the Warden and Mr. Sir. This is revealed by his constant taunting of Zero and by his total lack of concern for the safety of Stanley and Zero when they are covered in deadly yellow-spotted lizards.

Clyde Livingston - Clyde is the famous baseball player whose shoes Stanley is accused of stealing. He also suffers from the same foot odor that Charles Walker had. Clyde becomes the spokesman for Stanley's father's cure for foot odor.

Derrick Dunne - Derrick is the bully from Stanley's school. The teachers never believed that Derrick could bully Stanley because Stanley was so much larger. It is Derrick's testimony, however, that eventually proves that Stanley is innocent of stealing Clyde Livingston's shoes.

Holes Plot Summary

Holes

By Louis Sachar

Summary

Stanley Yelnats IV is an out-of-luck teen who suffers constant misfortune as a result of a curse placed on his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing, great-great grandfather. When sneakers suddenly fall from the sky and hit Stanley, he finds himself in a whole new type of bad luck as the sneakers were a special donation to a charity from a popular athlete, and the police decide Stanley stole them. With the choice between jail or a juvenile correction camp, Stanley chooses the latter, and thus arrives at Camp Green Lake. There, Stanley and the other boys are forced to dig holes five feet deep, and five feet wide in the now dry bed of the camp's eponymous lake every day. Stanley eventually realizes that they are digging these holes because the Camp Warden is searching for something likely hidden in the lake bed. As Stanley continues to dig holes, he befriends the other boys at the camp, and learns to adapt to this new misfortune.

In a separate plot, Stanley's great-great-grandfather, Elya Yelnats, (as a young man) receives a pig from the Gypsy Madame Zeroni to use as trade for the hand in marriage of a local maiden, Myra Menke. Acting on Madame Zeroni's instructions, Elya carries the pig each day to a certain spring and has it drink the spring's water while he sings it a particular song. When the pig is fully grown, he offers it to Myra's father, who is unable to decide whether Elya's pig or that of his rival Igor Barkov is the better. When Myra is unable to choose either of her suitors as a husband, Elya becomes disgusted and leaves for America. As he is leaving, he realizes that he has failed his promise to Madame Zeroni, who had wished that Elya would carry her to the spring and sing to her.

After his arrival in America, he marries a local named Sarah Miller, to whom he teaches the song. The song thereafter becomes an heirloom of their family. However, every generation including Elya himself suffer diverse misfortunes, and it is assumed that Elya's broken promise has become a curse upon them.

One hundred and ten years before Stanley arrives at Camp Green Lake, the town of Green Lake is a wonderful place where peach trees bloom throughout the spring. In this Texas town, the beautiful young schoolteacher, Katherine Barlow, falls in love with Sam, the onion seller. Sam sells onions to eat and to use for medicinal purposes. While Katherine and Sam are alive, racism is institutionalized in the United States and it is against the law for a black man to kiss a white woman. Because Sam is black and Katherine is white, the people in the town become irate when they find that Katherine and Sam have kissed. Charles, or Trout, Walker, the richest man in town has always wanted to marry Katherine, and when he finds out that she is in love with Sam, he gathers the townspeople to burn the schoolhouse and attack Sam. Katherine seeks help from the local sheriff but instead finds that the sheriff, who makes lewd advances towards her, also wants to kill Sam. Katherine and Sam attempt to escape but their boat is destroyed while only half way across the lake and Sam is killed. After the day that Sam is killed, rain stops falling on Green Lake and the lake dries up.

Katherine is driven mad by her grief and becomes an outlaw known as Kissin' Kate Barlow. Her name refers to the fact that she kisses the men she kills, leaving a lipstick imprint of her lips on their faces. In her twenty years of robbing people in the west, she happens to rob Stanley's great-grandfather while he is on his way from New York to California. Since Green Lake dried up, the citizens of the town all moved away, and Kate buries her loot somewhere around the lake, only to be later captured by Charles Walker and his wife Linda (a former student of Katherine's). They try to torture her into revealing its location, but Kate has the final laugh as she is bitten by a poisonous yellow lizard, and dies with the loot's location secret.

Since her death, the Green Lake has been virtually deserted, until later, when Camp Green Lake is founded for juvenile delinquents. As expected, Stanley has a hard time digging holes, due to the incredible heat and the tough, dry ground. The other boys at the camp have been toughened by the labor, and Stanley becomes friends with a boy nicknamed Zero. At one point, Stanley digs up half of a lipstick tube that has the initials K.B. on it. The Warden is interested in anything the boys find, and awards a day off for the person who finds something. One of the boys, X-Ray, asks Stanley to give him the tube, because he desperately needs a day to relax. As the boy takes the credit for the find, far away from where it was originally found, Stanley wonders if the Kate Barlow used to live in the area. Stanley finds out that Zero can't read or write and that his real name is Hector Zeroni. Zero starts digging a part of Stanley's hole every day so that Stanley can teach him how to read. But before Stanley finishes, the Warden finds out about the deal and, along with the other counselors, insults him and calls him stupid because he can't spell a word correctly.

Zero runs away from camp and Stanley, in an effort to save him, follows after a few days later. He finds Zero under Sam's old boat with "Mary Lou" painted on it. Zero and Stanley drink some liquid in bottles under the boat that Zero calls sploosh. Zero later vomits, presumably because of bacteria in the sploosh. The two help each other to reach the top of a big mountain, which turns out to be Sam's old onion field. Because Zero is very weak, Stanley carries him up this mountain and finds a spring. While Zero drinks, Stanley sings the family's song to keep his spirits up. They survive on onions for more than a week and then return to camp, planning to search for Kate Barlow's treasure, in the hole where Stanley found the lipstick tube.

Stanley and Zero find an old suitcase, which they believe is loaded with Kate's loot. The Warden finds them, and attempts to take the suitcase from them. The warden explains that she's the descendant of Trout and Linda, and that her family has been vainly digging in search of the treasure for years. The camp isn't truly to help juvenile delinquents, but rather to use forced labor to search for the loot. Stanley's lawyer, Ms. Morengo, luckily happens to arrive to pick up Stanley, as he has been proven innocent back in civilization. As the warden begins to argue that the suitcase is hers, Zero points out the fact that the suitcase has "Stanley Yelnats" printed on it. It turns out, Kissin' Kate used Stanley's grandfather's case to store the loot. As the lawyer states that the case is rightly Stanley's, the warden watches, dumbfounded, as they leave the camp, and expose the truth to its real intent. Stanley discovers that the suitcase contains many valuable items, and the once poor Yelnats are suddenly rich.

At the end of the book, Stanley's newfound luck is explained, as Zero is really Madame Zeroni's great, great, great grandson, and because Stanley carried him up the mountain, and fed him the spring water, the curse was broken. Zero is reunited with his mother, from whom he was separated many years ago, and Stanley's father finally succeeds in inventing something: a cure for foot odour. While fate has so often seemed against Stanley, in the end it serves to help him, his family, his new friends of Camp Green Lake, and Zero.

Macbeth Plot Summary

Macbeth
By William Shakespeare

Summary

A thunderstorm and three witches conclude a meeting. They decide to confront the great Scottish general Macbeth on his victorious return from a war between Scotland and Norway. The Scottish king, Duncan, decides that he will confer the title of the traitorous Cawdor on the heroic Macbeth.

Macbeth, and another General called Banquo, happen upon the three witches. The witches predict that he will one day become king. They also predict that Banquo will beget a line of kings, although will not ascend the throne himself. King Duncan arranges to visit him at his castle. Macbeth cannot stop thinking about the witches' prediction that he will become king and decides that he will murder Duncan. Macbeth's wife agrees to his plan.

Duncan arrives at the castle with his entourage but he has second thoughts about the murder plot. The forceful Lady Macbeth holds him to his vow to kill Duncan and further encourages him. She then summons evil spirits to "unsex" her and fortify her with cruelty. He then murders Duncan assisted by his wife who smears the blood of Duncan on the daggers of the sleeping guards.

A nobleman called Macduff discovers the body. Before investigation can take place Macbeth kills the guards insisting that their daggers smeared with Duncan's blood are proof that they committed the murderous crime. Duncan's sons, Malcolm and Donalbain, do not believe their father, however, fearing for their lives, they flee Scotland. This makes them appear guilty so the crown passes to Macbeth.

He remembers the prophecy of the witches that Banquo will beget a line of kings So he sends hired assassins to murder Banquo and his sons Donalbain and Fleance. Fleance, is the only one to escape with his life.

At a feast the bloodied ghost of Banquo appears to Macbeth but to no one else causing Macbeth to act and speak strangely. His wife sends the guests away.

Macbeth plagued by the fear of being discovered begins to suspect that Macduff, a nobleman who refused to attend the feast suspects him. He meets with the witches again and they confirm that he has good reason to fear Macduff but they soothe his fears by telling him that no born of woman can harm him.

After meeting with the witches he learns that Macduff is urging Duncan's son, Malcolm, to reclaim the throne. In revenge, he has Macduff's wife and son murdered. Macduff organizes an army to bring down Macbeth.

Lady Macbeth's conscience now begins to torture her and she imagines that she can see her hands covered with blood. She commits suicide.

Macbeth meets Macduff in hand-to-hand combat confident that he will win the day because ''none born of woman'' can harm him. Macduff then reveals that he was not ''of woman born'' but was ''untimely ripp'd'' from his mother's womb. Macduff kills Macbeth and the witches prediction proves true. Malcolm becomes king. The themes discussed are ambition, fate, deception and treachery.