![]() ![]() ![]() Lady Macbeth has control over her husband's action at the beginning while Lady Macduff did not have control as Macduff just left Lady Macduff without her consultation. These nurturing parents contrast starkly with Lady Macbeth's assertion that she would dash her child's brains out rather than give up her ambitions. Lady Macduff is a domestic and caring figure: her scene is one of the few times when child and parent are seen together, parallel to an earlier scene between Banquo and his son Fleance. Lady Macbeth believes her husband to be too full of the “milk of human kindness”, while Lady Macduff is furious at her husband for his unkind abandonment of his family. The contrasts are just as clear and ironic. Both feel the pain of loss and neither entirely understands her spouse. Like Lady Macbeth, Lady Macduff has a husband who has abandoned her with the intention to manipulate power. Though Lady Macduff is a foil to Lady Macbeth, they are not entirely opposites. Lady Macduff and Lady Macbeth are two who, "share some basic qualities but diverge in others". The murder of Macduff's family and his shock at this event convince Malcolm of Macduff's trustworthiness and disloyalty to Macbeth. He asks multiple times if his wife and "pretty ones" are actually dead. When he finally hears the news, his reaction suggests both shock and guilt. Macduff's fear for their safety and guilt is apparent, especially when he questions, “The tyrant has not battered at their peace?”. When Ross enters to tell him of the news of his wife and children's death, he immediately asks after his wife and children. This challenge is immediately taken up by Macduff in the next scene, Act IV Scene iii. Lady Macduff challenges her husband's actions, questioning, "What had he done to make him fly the land?" and raising a question of loyalty that the play never fully resolves. She speaks out unabashedly against her husband's disloyalty, saying "He loves us not" and "His flight was madness." When one of the murderers asks where her husband is she bravely replies, "I hope in no place so unsanctified / Where such as thou mayst find him." These interactions with other characters reveal her outspokenness. Lady Macduff's entire portrait as a character is painted in this one scene, though it is clear through her actions that she is a fiercely protective mother and a woman who is not afraid to speak out against others. She is killed off-stage, one of several significant offstage murders in the play. She heeds his words and exits the scene screaming, “Murder!”. The son is killed first and he urges his mother to flee. Lady Macduff is alarmed and moments later, the scene is invaded by a group of murderers sent by Macbeth. This domesticity is interrupted by the arrival of a messenger who warns her of imminent danger and urges her to escape with her children. Lady Macduff is left with her son, whom she speaks with, her fury toward Macduff mingling with her affection for her child. ![]() Claiming to be overcome with emotion, Ross takes his leave. Ross attempts to comfort her, though he offers little consolation and Lady Macduff responds with sharp retorts that betray her anger toward her husband. ![]() She is furious at her husband for his desertion of his family. In Act IV Scene II, Lady Macduff appears alongside the thane of Ross and her unnamed son. The latter part of Act IV Scene III is “wholly of Shakespeare’s invention.” Role Holinshed's Chronicles was Shakespeare's main source for Macbeth, though he diverged from the Chronicles significantly by delaying Macduff's knowledge of his wife's murder until his arrival in England. Macduff and Lady Macduff appear in both Raphael Holinshed's Chronicles (1577) and Hector Boece's Scotorum Historiæ (1526). Later playwrights, William Davenant especially, expanded her role in adaptation and in performance. Though Lady Macduff's appearance is limited to this scene, her role in the play is quite significant. Her appearance in the play is brief: she and her son are introduced in Act IV Scene II, a climactic scene that ends with both of them being murdered on Macbeth's orders. She is married to Lord Macduff, the Thane of Fife. Lady Macduff is a character in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Peggy Webber (right) as Lady Macduff in Orson Welles' film adaptation Macbeth (1948 film) ![]()
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