Williams Shakespeare’s gruesome play of Macbeth is based around a Scottish Thane, who was told three prophesies by the witches, one being Macbeth would become king. He was inspired by this and with the help from his controlling wife, Lady Macbeth, he killed King Duncan and take responsibility of becoming king. The couple then descend into psychosis possibly out of guilt. Horrible deeds, for example the murder of Macduff family, are performed by Macbeth in order to stay on the throne . Macduff is not fooled by Macbeth’s behaviour and soon killed him leaving King Duncan’s son, Malcom to the throne. Lord Macduff is the Thane of Fife and shows loyalty throughout his character towards the king, he appealed to the Scottish societal values and towards …show more content…
the end of the play, and he takes revenge and defends his country. Throughout the play, MacDuff was forever loyal to the true king and his country of Scotland. This is shown by Macduff morning over the death of King Duncan and going to great heights to save his beloved country. Following the death of King Duncan, many Scottish nobles were invited by Macbeth to the throne to accept him as their new king. Macduff senses Macbeth’s guilt, when asked by Ross if he will go to Macbeths crowning, he responds with ‘‘No, cousin, I’ll to Fife” (Act 2, Scene 4 Line 36 (Shakespeare, 1609)). Macduff refuses to accept and support the new king. He decides to leave the country to join King Duncan son Malcom, in England. He does not flee because he is a coward; he wants to help Malcom, the rightful king, in his development of an army to take down Macbeth.This shows how he was loyal to his country and king because he leaves his family near Macbeth, who is beginning to turn evil. During the Jacobean era (1603-1625), the social values were considered as: loyalty, masculinity and power.
These three were valued highly, especially in Scotland. This value was shown at the beginning of play by the characters such as Macduff and Banquo. Malcom tests to see if Macduff is loyal to him by giving a list of reasons as to why he would make a bad king. Malcom begins by saying that he is lustful, greedy and has no desire to become the king. Macduff shows his first sign of loyalty to Malcom by suggest that Malcom’s better qualities would overshadow his sins. Malcom’s second test involves giving Macduff the opportunity to make a plea for the kingship, instead Macduff repeated his statement of support for Malcom. These two acts assure Malcom that Macduff is loyal and will help in the revenge for Macbeth. Through making MacDuff loyal, he appealed to the Jacobean societal values and made it clear that he was the loyal, true …show more content…
man. Macduff becomes an avenging figure who is making things right.
He had a family but held them second after his country and king. Macduff discovers King Duncan’s body. ‘'O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart / cannot conceive nor name thee!? Most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope / the Lord's anointed temple, and stole thence / the life o' the building!’, Macduff begins to tell the surrounding people about the death of the king. Macbeth blames the guards for killing the king and Macduff decided to flee to England to join Malcom and left his family behind. Macbeth then goes to Fife to kill Macduff, but ends up killing his family and destroying his home after realizing the absence of Macduff. He expressed his pain by stating, 'all my pretty ones? All my pretty chickens and their dam / at one fell swoop?' (Act 4, Scene 4). Macduff knows he will 'feel it as a man' but not lose sight of his goal, he continued to act like a real mean. He felt the grief of not being there to protect his family, then turned it into anger and decided it was his duty to kill Macbeth and gain revenge. The audience feels sorry for Macduff, and agrees with him to get his revenge. Macduff does this by killing Macbeth.
Lord Macduff proves himself to the audience that he is both loyal and true man. Shakespeare used the societal values in the Jacobean times to prove this. He then used emotion as to make the audience feel for Macduff when his family is
murdered.
Like in all (or most) Shakespeare plays, there is always a hero that overcomes evil supernatural forces. Macduff is this essential character in this play. His loyalty and patriotism to his dear country, Scotland, is more exceeding unlike the likes of the other Scottish nobles, Macduff was devastated by the murder of his dear king, and he also somewhat sacrifices his family for his country. These three transactions add up to one hell of an admirable hero.
As the war for the justified king began, Macbeth faces his deep-rooted friend, Macduff. The fact Macbeth has murdered Macduff’s family exceeds their past friendship; Macduff seeks revenge against Macbeth and begins to draw his sword. Macbeth, however, refuses to fight: “Of all men else I have avoided thee. But get thee back. My soul is too much charged with blood of thine already” (V. iix. 5-7). Shakespeare shows that the blood Macbeth has charged with came from his ambition to become king and to stay king. Macbeth willingly and consciously kills his friend’s family in order to keep the crown. Individuals, overcome by greed, will kill entire families for power. Nevertheless, with greedy ambition comes retaliation. Macduff decapitates Macbeth and Death from past vengeance proclaims the final step of
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
... Macduff, was able to figure out that Macbeth was behind the murders. He went to England to get help from King Edward to overthrow Macbeth. When he gets back to Scotland he confronts Macbeth and then kills him. The truth of his acts caught up with him and he got what he deserved. This play is a prime example of why people need to think about the reality of their actions and think about how it will affect them in the future.
In the written text, Shakespeare emphasis's the hidden reality through the use of dramatic techniques of imagery and symbolism. There is a constant use of light and dark imagery which is used by the protagonist , MAC...
Some people are just meant to be heroes. In this wonderful play by Shakespeare Macduff is a good choice and born to be a hero. Throughout Macbeth there are several examples of Macduffs heroism and bravery. Macduff is a loving, caring man of action, Thane of Fife and a Scottish nobleman hostile to Macbeth's kingship. When he leaves his loving family to flee to England to join Malcolm, Macbeth has Macduff's wife and children murdered. At the end of the play, Macduff (who was born through a caesarian section) kills Macbeth bringing prosperity back to Scotland, and proving the truth in the witches prophecy that "no man of woman born" can harm Macbeth and his true heroism.
One such character in “Macbeth” is Macduff, the Thane of Fife. Within the play, Macduff is the foil ; a character that exemplifies the contrasting characteristics of another character, who is Macbeth in this play. In stark contrast to Macbeth, Macduff resolves to restore peace and order in Scotland, which Macbeth has disrupted. After King Duncan's unfortunate demise and the coincidental murder of Scotland's Commander and Macbeth's dear friend, Banquo, Macduff suspects that Macbeth is not the “innocent flower”(1.5.56-57) he pretends to be. Macduff finds himself on the course to England, where Malcolm, the rightful heir to the throne, has found refuge. He wishes that Malcolm would reclaim the throne as the legitimate heir, which shows his allegiance to the royal family. Instead of grasping the throne for himself, he decides to endanger his family to restore the lawful king. When he was informed of the assassination of his kin, he was able to express his grief, like a true man. In this line Macduff mourns for the loss of his family, “...All my pretty ones/ Did you say "all"? O hell-kite! All? / What, all my pretty chickens and their dam/ At one fell swoop?”(4.3.255-258). Here, Macduff's immense capacity to sacrifice for the common good of his people is shown. Consequently, the following lines display his course of actions at the
Macduff and Malcolm, along with ten thousand soldiers, move to Dunsinane to attack Macbeth at his castle. While the army is fighting, Macduff slips into Macbeth’s chambers. He calls out to Macbeth, saying, “That way noise is. Tyrant, show thy face! If thou beest slain, and with no stroke of mine, My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still. I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms Are hired to bear their staves. Enter thou, Macbeth, Or else my sword with an unbattered edge I sheathe again undeeded” (420). Macduff tells Macbeth that he is coming to kill him. He hopes to get there before anyone else finds and kills Macbeth because he needs to avenge his wife and children. Macduff then finds Macbeth and stabs and kills him. If Macbeth had not chosen to kill Macduff’s family, Macduff would not have desired to kill him to avenge their deaths. This shows that Macbeth’s decision to murder yet another group of people led to his final
Macduff’s positive attributes are evident throughout the play as many characters recognize his quality character, “noble, wise, judicious” (IV.II.16). Macduff’s inclination to protect and
Furthermore, Macduff also betrays his family. When Macduff leaves to Malcolm is found out by Macbeth, Macbeth orders: ‘give to th' edge o' th' sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line.’ [Act4 Scene1] This indicates that Macduff’s careless act leads to the slaughter of his whole family. He doesn’t take his family goes with him, instead, he leaves them at home defenselessly. This can be considered as a betrayal of Macduff’s family because he sacrifices his family to gain a morally higher success. In the end, he kills Macbeth with his own hands, however, he will live with guilt and grief for the rest of his life and regret the death of his family. Macduff’s betrays only to a less extent because his betrays for good purposes and are not very severe compares to what Macbeth has
Ross says, “I am so much a fool, should I stay longer, it would be my disgrace and your discomfort. I take my leave at once” (Shakespeare 4.2). This quote shows that Ross has no evil-minded due to the fact he leaves Lady Macduff and her child to die. Still, this shows Macbeth cruelty by sending the soldier to kill Macduff’s family. Macbeth says, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, seize upon Fife give th ’edge o’th’sword/ his wife, his babes, all unfortunate souls” (Shakespeare 4.1). The significance of this quote shows Macbeth cruelty thinking about his plan on how to kill the Macduff’s. Since Macduff’s family are not a threat to him, but his mind led him to worsen the situation. Macbeth says, “Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits: / the flighty purpose never is o’ertlook/ unless the deed go with it” (Shakespeare 4.1.). This quote shows that Macbeth is talking to himself about time so he can make up his plan instantly. He promises that from this time on if dreams the plan, he will act on it and carry it out for a purpose. To conclude with paragraph 3, Macbeth has no innocence over the people that do not have a threat to him. So Macbeth’s morality finds its way to justice which has to be solved.
And Banquo’s son Fleance manages to escape from the attack. Next, Macduff refuses to accept Macbeth as king and flees to England to join Malcom. The witches tell him to beware of Macduff, which angers Macbeth and drives him to kill Macduff's family. The fear of losing the impending battle with England makes Macbeth begin doing anything that will give him an edge in the final battle.
...-275). A third example of Macduff showing his kingly graces is in Act 5, Scene 8 when he shows loyalty to Scotland. After defeating Macbeth, Macduff brings attention to Malcom, the new king. He shows his loyalty to the country by saying: “Hail, King! For so thou art. Behold where it stands th’ usurper’s cursed head. The time is free. I see thee compassed with thy kingdom’s pearl, that speak my salutation in their minds, whose voices I desire aloud with mine. Hail, King of Scotland!” (V, viii, 65-70). These three quotations prove that Macduff would make a good king.
The witches do not force him to kill Duncan, but they do plant the idea is his head. After murdering Duncan, Macbeth made the decision to murder the guards, making Macduff suspicious of him. He also chooses to kill Banquo, and Macduff’s family. His actions are the reason that his life ended in the way that it did. At the beginning of his moral conflict he says in an aside “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me without my stir” (1. 3. 143-144). Macbeth is thinking to himself that if he is meant to be king by fate, he should just sit back and let it happen. He does not want to betray his king. After some careful thought, Macbeth chooses to take matters into his own hands by murdering the king. He was not influenced by the witches when he makes the decision to have Macduff’s family murdered. In an attempt to scare Macduff and show that he does not fear the Thane of Fife, Macbeth seals his own fate and ensures his death. Shortly after the death of his children and wife, Macduff returns to Scotland for revenge.
“Showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s to weak,/ For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-/ Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,/ Which smoked with bloody execution,/[...]/ Till he faced the slave;/ Which ne’er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,/Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chops,/ And fixed his head upon our battlements.” (1.2.18-25). In this quotation it reveals that Macdonwald was a traitor and he was winning the battle until his luck ran out and Macbeth came and killed Macdonwald without him saying his last words, he was “smoked with a bloody execution”(1.2.20). A lot of blood was shed that day however Macbeth came out of that battle victorious because he killed the traitor. Another victory was in Act 5, scene 8 when Macduff killed Macbeth. Macduff with Macbeth’s blood on his hands was seen as a hero , for killing this mad man “...Behold where stands/ The usurpers cursed head”(5.9.25-26).Macbeth’s hopes of being victorious was diminished when he learned that Macduff wasn’t born of a woman.Macduff ended up being victorious.