Is Macbeth a villain or a victim?

Whether you think Macbeth is a villain or victim largely depends on whether or not you think he is responsible for his own actions. Some observers have argued that Macbeth is essentially a good man driven to evil deeds by forces that are beyond his control. Act III, scene 5, where Hecate first meets with the witches, is especially important in raising this question. Hecate says that she will deliberately deceive Macbeth to persuade him...

Whether you think Macbeth is a villain or victim largely depends on whether or not you think he is responsible for his own actions. Some observers have argued that Macbeth is essentially a good man driven to evil deeds by forces that are beyond his control. Act III, scene 5, where Hecate first meets with the witches, is especially important in raising this question. Hecate says that she will deliberately deceive Macbeth to persuade him of his own invincibility. She will create visions, she says, that will cause him to "spurn fate, scorn death, and bear/ His hopes ’bove wisdom." Of course, the witches have already planted the idea in Macbeth's head that he was destined to become king of Scotland. Certainly at the end of the play, when he learns that he has been deceived by the witches' prophecies, Macbeth views himself as a victim, decrying the "juggling fiends...that palter with us in a double sense." Some might even argue that Macbeth is the victim of his scheming wife, who pushes him to murder first Duncan and then Banquo. 

But it cannot be denied that Macbeth is ultimately the man who carries out these actions, and that he is at least in some ways the villain of the play. The witches deceive him, but they seem to play on his (and his wife's) already existing ambition. Macbeth does not take much convincing that he is to be king of Scotland, and he very quickly begins to harbor "dark desires" that result in his murder of Duncan. Nobody forces Macbeth to do what he does, and even Hecate is confident that with a feeling of "security" from consequences Macbeth will be willing to carry out truly horrific deeds. 

In short, while Macbeth was without doubt the subject of malevolent forces, many of these forces existed within his own psyche. Ultimately he was responsible for his own actions, which destroyed almost everyone close to him at the beginning of the play.