At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is presented as a very powerful and formidable warrior. In relating to Duncan Macbeth's role in the battle against the rebel Macdonwald, the Sergeant describes him thus:
For brave Macbeth—well he deserves that name—
Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
Which smoked with bloody execution,
Like valor's minion carved out his passage
Till he faced the slave,
Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
Macbeth here is "brave" and "valor's minion." Compared to him Macdonwald is like a "slave." Duncan goes on to describe him as "valiant," and "worthy." Of course at this point in the play, Macbeth is believed to be as virtuous and loyal as he is powerful. Later in the play, he has become corrupted. In Act III, Scene 6, a conversation between Lennox and an unnamed lord makes it clear that Macbeth is a tyrant, and that getting rid of him will give "sleep to our nights." Obviously, Macbeth has exercised his powers in a way that angers his thanes, though we are lacking in specifics. Later, Malcolm claims, Scotland "sinks beneath the yoke," and "bleeds" under Macbeth's rule. So Macbeth is obviously a powerful monarch, but one who has used his power for ill. By the end of the play, he is essentially a murderous monster, so confident in his own destiny and his own power that he fearlessly rushes into combat.
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