Macduff Flashcards
When he discovers Duncans dead body ‘Most sacrilegious murder’
He is horrified, he uses alliteration of M to convey that it is unspeakable what he is seeing, he cant fathom what has happened. He is loyal to the king. In contrast to Macbeth, Macduff lacks no ambition and he is happy with his state right now. This relates to the divine right of king, the position of a king should be unquestioned and left to the divine right.
When he realises Macbeth is responsible ‘O nation miserable, with an untitled tyrant’
Macduff believes that Macbeth was the cause of Duncans murder, he secretly flees to England to try and convince Malcom to gather a group to overthrow Macbeth. ‘Nation miserable’ uses personification to show that Scotland is crushed under the weight of the wrong king, again Macduff is very loyal and it links to the theme of kingship, when the country is under the rule of a king not chosen by God it falls apart and vise versa
When he discovers Macbeth has killed his family ‘all my pretty chickens… in one fell swoop’
All his family and children have been killed in one wave of evil, use the metaphor of pretty chickens to show that his family were vulnerable and defenceless, he is confused as to why the person behind this is evil and cant put up a fair fight. He has now acquired a reason to kill Macbeth. This quote relates to the theme of ambition, Macduff recognises that Macbeth has been overcome by his ambition and he has given into the supernatural of the witches.
At battle, facing Macbeth - ‘from his mothers womb untimely ripped”
Macbeth goes into battle believing that he has the power of the witches behind him, he thinks he is immortal as he cannot be killed by a man not born from a women. However, Macduff directly combats this as he was a c-section, the use of a declarative sentence here is Macduff showing Macbeth that his time is now up and he will die. Macduff has restored order back to Scotland, setting it back to the divine right of Kings, to Malcom. This quote links to supernatural, as Macbeth learns that it had mislead him by feeding him half-truths, and now he has been led to his fate.
Once he kills Macbeth ‘the usurpers cursed head… Hail, King of Scotland’
‘Hail king of Scotland’ shows Macduff is loyal as he could have taken Kingship, despite this he hands the crown to Malcom as he believes in following the divine right of kings. Showing that he has no ambition.
