Search results
People also ask
What role does Macduff play in Macbeth?
What happens in Macbeth?
Why did Macbeth kill Lady Macduff?
What happens when Macduff arrives at Mabeth's Castle?
Macduff stands out from a large cast of secondary characters because of the particular harm that Macbeth does to him, and the revenge Macduff takes on Macbeth in turn. At the beginning of the play, Macduff is a loyal and brave noble fighting on Duncan’s side.
- Macbeth
We may classify Macbeth as irrevocably evil, but his weak...
- Banquo
Similar to Macbeth, Banquo seems unable to understand the...
- Malcolm
Even though it is Macduff who ultimately kills Macbeth, the...
- King Duncan
Duncan’s decency and trust in both Cawdor and Macbeth not...
- The Three Witches
For example, it is doubtful that Macbeth would have murdered...
- Suggestions for Further Reading
Hawkes, Terence, ed. Twentieth-Century Interpretations of...
- Related Links
BBC School Radio: Macbeth. This audio-visual series features...
- Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to...
- Macbeth
Macduff, a legendary hero, plays a pivotal role in the play: he suspects Macbeth of regicide and eventually kills Macbeth in the final act. He can be seen as the avenging hero who helps save Scotland from Macbeth's tyranny in the play.
Macduff, Malcolm, and the English forces arrive in Scotland and corner Macbeth in his castle at Forres. A battle follows and eventually Macduff comes face to face with Macbeth. The witches have told Macbeth that he can never be vanquished by any man born of a woman.
Prodded by his ambitious wife, Lady Macbeth, he murders King Duncan, becomes king, and sends mercenaries to kill Banquo and his sons. His attempts to defy the prophesy fail, however: Macduff kills Macbeth, and Duncan's son Malcolm becomes king.
- Summary: Act 4: Scene 1
- Summary: Act 4: Scene 2
- Summary: Act 4: Scene 3
- Analysis: Act 4: Scenes 1–3
In a dark cavern, a bubbling cauldron hisses and spits, and the three witchessuddenly appear onstage. They circle the cauldron, chanting spells and adding bizarre ingredients to their stew—“eye of newt and toe of frog, / Wool of bat and tongue of dog” (4.1.14–15). Hecate materializes and compliments the witches on their work. One of the witches the...
At Macduff’s castle, Lady Macduff accosts Ross, demanding to know why her husband has fled. She feels betrayed. Ross insists that she trust her husband’s judgment and then regretfully departs. Once he is gone, Lady Macduff tells her son that his father is dead, but the little boy perceptively argues that he is not. Suddenly, a messenger hurries in,...
Outside King Edward’s palace, Malcolm speaks with Macduff, telling him that he does not trust him since he has left his family in Scotland and may be secretly working for Macbeth. To determine whether Macduff is trustworthy, Malcolm rambles on about his own vices. He admits that he wonders whether he is fit to be king, since he claims to be lustful...
The witches are vaguely absurd figures, with their rhymes and beards and capering, but they are also clearly sinister, possessing a great deal of power over events. Are they simply independent agents playing mischievously and cruelly with human events? Or are the “weird sisters” agents of fate, betokening the inevitable? The word weird descends ety...
Macduff offers a contrast to Macbeth: a Scottish lord who, far from being ambitious, puts the welfare of Scotland even ahead of the welfare of his own family. Macduff suspects Macbeth from the beginning, and becomes one of the leaders of the rebellion.
Macduff, the Thane of Fife, is Macbeth's deadly enemy. He discovers Duncan's body and becomes Malcolm's chief supporter, following him to England to support him in raising an army against...
