In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macduff is a character who is barely included in the story, she is only seen in Act 4 scene 2. However, Lady Macduff acts as a foil to Lady Macbeth. They seem to be polar opposites, Lady Macduff appears to be a very caring and feminine while Lady Macbeth seems to be evil and not really feminine. Lady Macduff’s appearance is brief but it is very clear that she is a loving mother. She gets very upset when her husband, Macduff, flees the country. “To leave his wife, to leave his babes,His mansion and his titles in a place From whence himself does fly? 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”(4.2.9-13).
The quote, “Man is not truly one, but truly two.” can be analyzed from a behaviorally or mentally aspect. Physically, man is one, but if you delve deeper into the man, he can be separated into two parts which creates a whole man. In the play Macbeth and in the novel Lord of the Flies, some of the characters can be split into two conflicting parts. The characters are neither entirely good or entirely bad. In both the novel and the play, something happens to the characters that made them split into an evil side, thus creating two men.
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.
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.
A quote which really defines Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s ambition regarding power is “Power does not corrupt men; fools; however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power” George Bernard Shaw. Lady Macbeth is more ambitious in terms of gaining power then Macbeth is and that Lady Macbeth will do almost anything to gain power, even evil things that she normally wouldn’t do. This is shown when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth learn about the witches’ predictions, then roles in the plans to murder king Duncan in order to gain power and then finally after the murder, Macbeth doesn’t want to finish the plan making Lady Macbeth angry and causing a chance they might get caught and gain no power at all.
Although most of Shakespeare's play " Mac Beth " is not historically accurate, MacBeth's life is the subject of the tragedy. There are characters and events that are based on true events and real persons but, Shakespeare's "MacBeth " differs significantly from history's MacBeth. The first example of a difference between the Shakespeare "MacBeth" and historical Mac Beth is the death of Duncan I. In Shakespeare's " Mac Beth ", Duncan I was murdered by MacBeth.
The Relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Throughout the play of "Macbeth" written by William Shakespeare there is an on-going relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. This relationship is one of the functions of the play that creates most of the actions, reactions, moods, feelings and attitudes. Macbeth's relationship with his wife was not always great. This is shown in one of there conversations; MACBETH: "We will proceed no further in this business: He hath honour'd me of late; and I have bought Golden opinions from all sorts of people, Which would be worn now in their newest gloss, Not cast aside so soon. "(Macbeth,I,vii, )
Macbeth: Shakespeare's Comparisons and Contrasts. Throughout Macbeth Shakespeare uses comparison and contrast to bring out characteristics of his main character, Macbeth. Shakespeare uses comparisons with Duncan, Lady Macbeth, and Banquo to bring out aspects of Macbeth's character. After hearing of Macbeth's courageousness on the battlefield, Duncan, a good and honest king, bestows the title of Cawdor on Macbeth.
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
The story “The tragedy of Macbeth” portrays as being catastrophe, after finding out what Lady Macbeth had done. There will always be a thought in your head as to why she did what she did? Everything she did to get what she wanted you would not believe how she did it. Here comes Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Lady Bercilak does her said of things in the story when her husband leaves and does not have anything to do but entertain herself and her company. Lady Macbeth and Lady Bercilak compare and contrast through deviousness, selfishness and unbalanced behaviors.
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 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
Macduff’s wife is left behind. Ross tells Lady Macduff the reason why he fled was because he has wisdom. She argues with Ross and mentions, “Wisdom! to leave his wife, to leave his babes/His mansion and his titles, in a place/From whence himself so fly? 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 an owl” (IV.ii.6-11). When Lady Macduff compares Macduff to a wren, the tiniest of birds, she is saying that Macduff is a coward. He has no problem leaving his family, his titles, and his lands for personal safety. Hence, a wren symbolizes the cowardice act of Macduff fleeing England and putting Scotland before family.
There was a common saying, “Behind every great man there's a great woman”. The men, Macbeth and Winston Smith in Shakespeare’s Macbeth and George Orwell’s 1984 may not be considered as the “great man” however, both Lady Macbeth and Julia are good examples that can be presented as the “great woman” behind the men. Both Lady Macbeth and Julia do an excellent job of pretending to be someone who they are not, they are not only affecting the men in their lives to rethink their previous position but also have a bad ending accompanied with physical and psychological issues.
At the start of the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are seen as a united
In this essay I will discuss the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. I will explain how their relationship is different to traditional relationships of the time. At the time, Jacobean people believed that the men were stronger then the woman. They believed that, when married, the husband would be in control and the wife would have no choice but to do what their husband asked. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relationship was every different.