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Macbeth Scene Analysis
This scene takes place in Act IV, scene 2, and involves both Lady MacDuff and her son. As displayed, the two characters discuss the loyalty of MacDuff from their own perspectives.
The scene provides a look into the bond between the mother and son, which leads to a more dramatic reaction later in the scene when they are both brutally murdered under the ruthless instructions of Macbeth.
In the scene, Lady MacDuff’s character is stunned by her husband’s betrayal after he goes off to England, abandoning her. Being a respectable mother and devoted wife, she is left to care for herself and her children. Initially, she has a very optimistic mindset when she says “Every one that [swears and lies] is a traitor, and must be hanged”, she believes that those who do wrong will always be the ones who get punished. However, this depicts her character as being extremely naïve and virtuous. In response, her son provides her with a reality check as he states that those who are unethical don’t always get punished for their wrongdoings, and can sometimes overpower those who do good.
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Things and people may not always turn out to be what they seem, and in many cases, situations don’t always result in fair matters. An example of this is how Lady MacDuff and her son, who are both loyal and honest, are betrayed by MacDuff, as well as unfortunately killed later in the scene by the merciless orders of Macbeth. Though they both did nothing wrong, they were the ones who suffered rather than the people who betray
Even though others question Macduff’s responsibility for his family’s murder, "Why in that rawness left you wife and child”, he ultimately left them out of love for both family and country. Macduff’s persistent desire to defeat Macbeth determines his loyalty to country, rather than to the tyrant Macbeth. From the beginning, Macduff has valued country over leader, so when Duncan is murdered, and Macbeth will be coronated, “Will you go to scone/No, cousin, I’ll to Fife” (2.4.35-36). Macduff doesn’t attend the coronation because he is suspicious of Macbeth and his possible involvement in Duncan’s
This is Macduff's reaction to the King's death. This reaction is considered very feminine , because masculine people react to death by portraying stoicism and are less emotive. In masculinity, a man is not supposed to be emotive and cry, instead a man tends to be strong, stoic, sometimes angry and men usually do whatever they can to avenge death . Instead Macduff's is very emotive and is in such shock where he is almost to the point of fainting which is very feminine which is characterized by Lady Macbeth. Macduff does not grief like a man until he hears the news of his family’s death . At first Macduff’s reaction to his family's death is feminine when he says
Thirdly, feelings of paranoia and guilt cause Macbeth characters to make damaging choices. When Macbeth asks the witches to reveal the truth of their prophecies to him, they summon horrible apparitions, each of which offers a prediction to allay Macbeth’s fears. First, a floating head warns him to beware Macduff. Macbeth says that he has already guessed as much. Later when Lennox enters and tells Macbeth that Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth in reply says, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; / Seize upon Fife; give to th'edge o'th'sword / His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls / That trace him in his line.” (4.1.149-152). As Macbeth descends to madness he becomes obsessed with eliminating any threats to his power. Macbeth orders the murderers to kill Macduff's family and eliminate any threat to him. Ironically, this is the moment that Macbeth seals his own fate, by murdering Macduff's family he ensures Macduff's retaliation against him, which ultimately leads
...d, he is apathetic to her death. All he holds value of is keeping his crown, and his greed for power leads to his cockiness in his last battle with Macduff. Because he does not believe one of women-born can stop him, he overlooks Macduff, and when Macduff’s history is revealed, Macbeth loses all confidence and loses the battle, and his life.
At this point in the play, Macbeth is afraid of losing his crown that he is willing to do anything to save it. He lost his moral values and rational judgment. Every actions does indeed have consequences. Macduff learns the truth that Macbeth killed Duncan and when Macduff is often absent from Macbeth’s sight he grows suspicious. Macbeth has also been told by the witches during his second visit to beware of Macduff. Upon hearing this, he decided to send people to kill Macduff and his family. Macduff fled the castle first leaving his family behind. During the time Lady Macduff voice her fear: "He loves us not; / He wants the natural touch: for the poor wren, / The most diminutive of birds, will fight, / Her young ones in her nest, against the owl" (4.2.11).
Macduff ends up putting his country ahead of his family, whom he loves dearly when he quickly decides to flee to England. Macduff made the hardest decision of his life and a decision he had to make to bring prosperity back to Scotland. Lady Macduff questions her husband’s wisdom as she sees no reason for him to leave his family and home behind. "Wisdom! To leave his wife, to leave his babes, his mansion and his titles in a place from where himself does fly?" Lady Macduff yells in question. Although fleeing to England to Malcom’s side was a very questionable decision, there was no doubt in Macduff’s mind of what had to be done.
...th; meanwhile his pride blinded him from the fact that Macduff was the one man that could kill him. He cried out "Lay on Macduff, and damned to him that first cries 'Hold, enough!'" (Macbeth, Act 5, Sc. 8, ll. 33-34) For both characters, their pride was ultimately the cause of their deaths.
The death of Lady Macduff and her son, causes Macbeth’s power to spiral downwards. When Macduff finds out that Macbeth is behind the murder of his wife and son, Macduff wants to have revenge on Macbeth for his actions. To do this, Macduff decides to gather an army to fight against Macbeth. The two enemies fight against each other, with Macduff being the winner, after killing Macbeth.
In addition to the importance of her role, the facination that audiences had with her character has led to later playwrites even adding to her role. Sir William Davenant, a 17th century poet and playwrite especially, added 4 extra scenes to his operatic adaptation of ‘Macbeth’ in order to better establish her character as a foil to that of Lady Macbeth’s. This, in my opinion, is the mark of great writing- when a marginalised character in a particular writer’s work has insipired a generation of new writers to further explore the character’s potential. As far as the representation of Lady Macduff goes in Shakespeare’s original ‘Macbeth’, there is not much context from which we can draw conclusions. All we know from the scene is that Lady Macduff is a fierce woman and mother. She her love for her children comes across blatently in the scene; so does the love she has for her husband, although that is masked by fury and her feelings of betrayal. She is a woman, unafraid to speak her mind, whatsoever be the consequences. She speaks out brazenly against her husband’s disoyalty to his family exclaiming “He loves us not!” She does not lose this quality even when faced with the murderers. She is, as far as we see in this scene, a strong willed woman with a clear-cut idea of where her loyalites lie and a sharp and candid tongue. She is considered to be, in
The role of Macduff is an essential one in Macbeth. He acts as the brave antagonist and foil to Macbeth, while portraying a dynamic and round character in the play as well. Macduff’s values do not change throughout the play however, as acts progress, more is learned about his character and certain traits are accentuated. For example, Macduff is hostile against Macbeth from the beginning, immediately suspicious of his path to royalty, first seen when Macduff chooses to return to Fife instead of attend the new king’s coronation. As Macbeth is more overwhelmed with his power, and chaos ensues from his reign, Macduff’s suspicion and lack of acceptance in his kingship grows to fuel his rivalry against the once heroic Macbeth. Macduff is dynamic in his growth as a more involved character but also in his suspicion and hatred for the protagonist. In addition, Macduff is also considered a round character with many facets. In Act 4, Macduff is revealed as more than just a moral man and brave Thane, but also a sensitive family man with a wife and many children. His multi-facet life exposes the increasing differences in M...
Macduff was the first to openly defy Macbeth by his decision to go to his castle in Fife rather than Macbeth’s coronation in “Scone” (2.4). Macduff flees to England to rally support and revolt against Macbeth (4.3). Macduff acts on his free will, uninfluenced by the power of Macbeth nor others, and does what he believes to be the best for himself and everyone else. He retains his independent thoughts and his sense of masculinity despite the consequences he might suffer, standing his grounds with his beliefs and ideology of being a true patriot. Later on, upon hearing the news of his family’s murder, Macduff shows his sensitivity: “I shall [disput it like a man], but I must also feel it like a man” (4.3). He depicts the ability to have emotions and link it to his masculinity as a part of human traits, embracing his weaknesses and flaws and showing that he also acts as he believes he should act. The sharp contrast between Macbeth’s cowardly actions and Macduff’s strong will is shown at the final battle between the two; Macbeth refuses to fight with Macduff when Macbeth learns Macduff is that one person in the prophecy that would defeat Macbeth until Macduff threatens to capture him alive and humiliates him in front of the crowd (5.8).Once again, Macbeth masculinity is threatened, and he gives in to the threat rather than stand his ground, leading to his ultimate demise. Macduff’s
When Macbeth revisits the witches, the second apparition that appears is a bloody child. The bloody child tells Macbeth, “Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of a woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” (IV.i.79-81). This scene presents a strong sense of violence.
Furthermore, we also learn about Lady Macduff’s and her kids’ death. To prove this, Macbeth says in Act 4, scene 1 that he wants to kill Macduff and his family for joining Malcolm, the protagonist adds “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, / Seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword / His wife, babes, and all unfortunate swords / That trace him in his line.” Although many might argue that Macbeth was forced to kill Duncan, which caused him to kill everyone else, the protagonist could of have refused to follow his wife’s orders and refrain from the power he wants. From the quotations used, we can now tell that Macbeth is a monster due to the murders he
Towards the end of the play, Macbeth takes an incredible turn for the worst by killing Macduff’s family. The witches told him “Beware Macduff, beware the Thane of fire”(IV.II.71), Macbeth knew Macduff fled to find Malcolm the rightful heir to the throne. Macbeth, knowing this got terribly angry and sent orders to kill Macduff's family.While Lady Macduff was very angry at Macduff she says, "Wisdom! To leave his wife, to leave his babes, his mansion and his titles”(IV.II.54-57) sarcastically because she knows he will regret it. His decision clouds her judgement when someone warned her she could be in danger she did not take threat seriously, which led to her son and hers death. When the person warned her she told them "Whither should I fly?
Shakespeare’s play Macbeth has a series of motifs or patterns of imagery such as ambition and greed, unnatural deeds versus human nature, females and evil, and hallucinations, however the one pattern of imagery that the reader can recognize everywhere in Macbeth without the word beginning said is blood.Blood reveals the theme of violence and cruelty in Macbeth.Where there is violence there is blood, where there is dishonesty there is blood and even when there is uncertainty there is blood.In the next paragraphs I will recognize how bloodshed results in victory, guilt and finally tragedy and how it reveals the theme of violence and cruelty.