Act 4, Scene 2

Summary

• Lady Macbeth talks to her son about her husband going to England
• Murderers enter their home
• Son attempts to stand up for his father but is killed
• Other family members flee but are eventually caught

Key Points

• The engagement with Lady Macduff and her son before the murder make the audience feel even more horror and sadness in regards to their murder
• The fact that Lady Macduff’s son is killed before her, stands up for his father, and tells his mother to run makes us feel more hatred towards Macbeth
• Lady Macduff is supposed to be the antithesis of Lady Macbeth - someone/something appears more evil when put next to someone/something that is not

Quotes

‘His flight was madness’ - Lady Macduff

• She believes her husband is a traitor
• She didn’t get to know why he left

‘He is noble, wise, judicious, and best knows’ - Ross

• Defends Macduff
• Words that were used to describe Macbeth in Act 3, Scene 6 - ironic

‘float upon a wild and violent sea’ - Ross

• Metaphor
• Being caught up in these dangerous, political times is compared to sailing on a violent sea

‘As birds do’ - Son

• Extended metaphor of the son being a bird
• Birds symbolise innocence, freedom, and harmlessness
• He is saying that he doesn’t need to fear being trapped
• Makes the audience feel empathetic

‘to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly’ - Lady Macduff

• Saying that to do harm often praiseworthy, and to do good is sometimes viewed as foolish - linking to Act 1, Scene 2 where Macbeth was being praised for violently killing Macdonwald
• Parallelism reinforces ‘fair is foul and foul is fair’ - the world is horrible
• Recognising that the world is horrible gives the impression that she is intelligent

‘What, you egg!’ - Murderer

• Shows how young the boy is
• ‘egg’ - symbolises innocence
• Makes the death sadder

‘Run away, I pray you’ - Son

• His final thoughts are of his mother
• Shows his selflessness and bravery
• Makes the audience hate Macbeth even more