In Macbeth, Act 4: 2, we can see that Macbeth has reached a point in his life where he will do anything and kill anyone to ensure his stature in the kingdom is protected. We analyzed this when he first murdered King Duncan and then had Banquo, his best friend, assassinated. With his constant homicides come sleepless nights and hallucinations of ghosts. Eventually, his wife goes crazy because of her guilty conscience of provoking her husband into committing the murders, and dies right before the battle between Macbeth and Macduff occurs. One chief motive behind Macduff’s purpose to destroy Macbeth is what act 4: 2 is about. Macbeth has Macduff’s family, and all who were in his home, slaughtered. This engages Malcolm, who was suspected of his …show more content…
She thinks that he had left them because he was frightened and that he doesn’t care about his family. After Ross leaves, she says to her son that his father had died. He does not believe her, for if he was really dead, she would be weeping for him. If she wasn’t, he would know that he would quickly have a new father. It’s not that Macduff doesn’t care about his family, but he went off to England to recruit help from Malcolm to help save the country from the tyrant Macbeth. He knows that he shouldn’t have left his family so unprotected, but he had to leave as soon as possible so to end the suffering of the people under Macbeth’s rule. One significant example, (that isn’t in this scene) where Macduff shows his love and sympathy for his family, is when he starts to weep after Ross tells him the bad news about their murder. Therefore, he did actually really care about his family, but for that moment, he cared more about his …show more content…
So the number of liars outnumbers the amount of trustworthy citizens. Therefore, the term, “fair is foul, and foul is fair,” means that people who are nice and trustworthy should, and are, killed, like Banquo and the family and people or Macduff’s home. In return, People who are foul villains, are now trusted? Comparing to the real world of today, there are those who make promises and break them, but they are not so severe that they need to be hanged for doing so. However, those who break their promises very often are perceived as untrustworthy and individuals learn not to converse or make agreements with them. So, deciding whether someone is a good individual or not, judging by their honesty, is determined in the eye of the
Lady Macduff on the other hand, seems to genuinely love and feel for her husband. She is very upset over the fact that he is leaving home, not because she feels it is cowardly, rather because she knows that he is her protector and her one true love and without him she is lacking. This is an obvious difference between Lady Macduff and Lady Macbeth, which helps to highlight the personality of Lady Macbeth.
In the beginning of the play, we see that Macduff is barely mentioned in Act I, but his intelligence can be noted when he hears about King Duncan’s death. When the Scottish nobles are going to welcome Macbeth as the new king of Scotland, Macduff is skeptical of how King Duncan’s death will change the story throughout the play. At first, Macduff agrees with the fact that Malcolm and Donalbain are most likely suspects in the murder of their father because someone saw them fled the scene
Macduff’s burning desire for revenge towards Macbeth was encouraged by many forces. As it is known, Macbeth murders Duncan which causes Malcolm to flee to England because he fears for his life. Following Duncan’s death, Macduff was the first to discover Duncan dead, and it can be inferred that he was so angry and mortified that it sparks apprehensiveness towards Macbeth’s acquiring the throne. As he realizes that he does not agree with Macbeth’s reign, he decides to leave his family behind in Fife to go to England to find Malcolm, the true heir to the throne. His plan is to conspire with Malcolm to build an army against Macbeth. Macduff was so loyal to Scotland and the true ruler that he was willing to abandon his family in the process of freeing Scotland from tyranny. As he meets with Malcolm, Ross delivers the news that
Avaunt! And quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee! / Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; / Thou hast no speculation in those eyes / Which thou dost glare with! (III.iv.109-103). Macbeth’s deranged actions at the banquet show that any actions he takes past that point, including ordering the death of Macduff’s family, should not be held personally against Macbeth as his mental health has deteriorated to the point that he is no longer sane. Moreover, it is arguable that Macbeth is under the impression that Macduff and his family are dangerous to him. The witches, in the First Apparition shown to Macbeth, tells him to “Beware Macduff! / Beware the Thane of Fife” (IV.i.78-79). This is a direct mention of the danger posed by Macduff against Macbeth, and as Macduff has escaped, Macbeth can only attempt to punish Macduff’s family in order to dissuade him from acting against Macbeth’s regime. Finally, Macduff betrayed and committed high treason against King Macbeth for fleeing to a foreign power to assist an enemy of the state, Malcolm. Macduff’s goal to dethrone Macbeth is clearly shown when he requests that he and Malcolm must “Macduff.
Macduff heard about the death of his entire castle and became committed to revenge. “But gentle heavens, cut short al intermission: front to front bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself; within my sword’s length set him; if he ‘scape, heaven forgive him too!” (Shakespeare IV.iii.66) Macbeth received a second set of prophecies that gave him a very large and false confidence. “What’s the boy Malcolm? Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know all mortal consequences have pronounced me thus: `fear not, Macbeth; no man that’s born of woman shall e’er have upon thee.’ Then fly, false thanes, and mingle with the
In the original innocence of Macbeth the thought of murdering a family would be unthinkable, but the truly evil person he becomes commits the act with happiness know that there will be less to threaten his reign as king.
Macbeth has lost all touch with what’s right and what’s wrong and doesn’t use his logic. He is in fear of losing his crown that he will do anything to protect it. Macbeth says, “I’ll raid Macduff’s castle, seize the town of Fife, and kill his wife, his children, and anyone else unfortunate enough to stand in line for his inheritance”. (IV, I,148-154). When Macduff was not here from Macbeth’s feast, Macbeth grew suspicious of him and decided to make a point to others by murdering his family when he heard the news that Macduff has fled.
While Macduff is in England, Macbeth learns of the abandonment of Macduff's family and resolves to have them murdered. When Macduff learns of the murder of his family, he is motivated by Malcolm to get revenge. It is this that pushes Macduff to the edge and forces him to go after Macbeth himself. The power of Malcolm's taunting that he must take it like a man and his own love for his family makes him hate Macbeth to the fullest extent, and eventually he succeeds in killing him.
Macduff is motivated by his patriotism, and his love for his country. He is a flat main character, whereas he has no major changes throughout the play. He fights for what he believes and his actions have effects on the other characters. Though he did not suspect Macbeth as to being a traitor and killing Duncan, he did not think that he was fit to rule the state. His actual anger to Macbeth came with the slaughter of his family. It serves as more motivation for him, and without it Macbeth may have lived through the final battle. Throughout the play you see that Macduff has always been the foil to Macbeth, causing the worry in him that overthrew his rule, and that Macduff is the hero that Scotland
The exchange between Macbeth and Macduff in the beginning of 5.8 from Shakespeare's Macbeth shows the rapid decline of Macbeth’s confidence and drive. In the first half of this scene, Macbeth is remorseful for the deaths that he has caused or committed. Macduff enters confidently, refers to Macbeth as a “hellhound” and orders him to turn around to face him for battle. Macbeth juxtaposes his confidence with a mournful longing to undo the past by saying, “Get thee back. My soul is too much charged with the blood of thine already” (5.8.6-7).
Macbeth shows his desire for power, he was friendly to Banquo before he became the king, but after he became the king, he let three murderers to kill Banquo and his son. “So is he mine, and is such bloody distance That every minute of his being thrusts against my near ‘st of life”(3.1 line 116-118). Macbeth sent three murderers to kill Banquo and his son since they ran away. All he thinks about is to kill more people in order to gain more power. Macbeth didn’t just kill Banquo only, he also killed Macduff’s whole family. “Murderer. What your egg! Stabbing him. Young fry of treachery! Son. He has killed me, mother: Run away, I pray you”(4.3 line 84-87). He killed Macduff’s whole family, he just wanted to make sure he doesn’t lose his power, so he just killed anyone who against him, he’s obsessed with his power, he never cares about breaking other people’s family.
Macduff's ambition in this play was to be loyal to his country by taking out Macbeth. Too much of his time is spent plotting against Macbeth, which throws off Macduff’s values. He abandons his family and left for England to find Malcolm so he could wage war against Macbeth. Later, Macbeth hears that the recent absence of Macduff at the banquet and at Duncan’s funeral was because he had fled to England, to find Malcolm. So Macbeth reacts to this by sending murderers to kill Macduff's family. Once Macduff finds out that his family is dead, he starts to exhibit some emotion. At this time he is about to wage war on Macbeth with Malcolm; Malcolm say's to Macduff "Dispute it like a man"(4.3.259). Macduff then replies,
In Act 4 Macbeth has taken another turn for the worse. He has become barbaric, ruthless and calloused. The witches have given Macbeth visions and caused him to become confident to a fault in his power. He believes that nobody can stop him. He heartlessly orders the killing of all of Macduff’s family because Macduff has fled to England. “Seize upon to Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword his wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line” (IV.i.158-160) Macbeth has passed the point of no return. His desire to have power has won. His good side is no more.
Before Macbeth meets with Macduff, he thinks of ways to handle Macduff so he would no longer be a problem. Macduff was considered to be a problem because he left the kingdom in order to assist an opposing force. Macbeth states “Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee? But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, and take a bond of fate.” (Act IV scn i, ln 82-84) He wants to make sure Macduff will not be a problem; he wants to keep Macduff out of his way. In this scene Macbeth is attempting to discover ways to inforce his superiority through the phrase “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; seize upon Fife; give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword his wife, his babies, and all unfortunate souls.” (Act IV scn i, ln 150-152) He hired men to kill Macduff’s family, so he will be depressed and will grieve; he wants to keep Macduff out of the way of him still being King. The main reason he did this, however, was to exert his leadership over Macduff and send a message. This paragraph explains how Macbeth was disloyal to Macduff and how he did anything to keep Macduff out of his way, but things did not turn out as he
This essay is on Macbeth and Macduff. Also this essay is on their actions and roles in this play. But the prompt for the essay is to examine to two characters Macbeth and Macduff. Like, one question is how are Macbeth and Macduff juxtaposed to one another. I also have to indicate when each character was noble and what lead to their perception.