Macduff

Question 1

‘sacrilegious murder hath broke open/ The Lord’s anointed temple’

Answer 1

CRILD:
L = metaphor. Duncan’s stabbed body is compared to a temple that has been broken into. MD’s use of a religious semantic field establishes his moral goodness.
C = DRK. Jacobeans believed in the DRK, therefore murdering a king was an act against God. (Gunpowder Plot)

Question 2

‘beware Macduff’

Answer 2

CRILD:
R = the apparition’s warning is an effective dramatic device as the audience wonders why MB should fear him and how he might threaten MB’s position on the throne

Question 3

‘give to the edge of the sword his wife, his babes’

Answer 3

CRILD:
L = emotive language. When MB learns MD has fled to England he takes revenge by murdering his family.
R = audience despises MB for his cruelty in killing innocent children

Question 4

‘sinful Macduff, they were all struck for thee’

Answer 4

CRILD:
L = adjective suggests his guilt that his innocent family were murdered for his actions. Sibilance shows his self-hatred.
R/D = MD is not a flawless character. The audience may feel sympathy but also feel leaving his family was a serious error of judgement. He should have protected them

Question 5

‘Fit to govern? No, not to live. O nation miserable…

Answer 5

CRILD:
L= Malcolm tests MD by pretending to have a sinful character. Macduff’s rhetorical question shows he refuses to support a sinful king because this will just continue Scotland’s suffering. Malcolm is then satisfied that MD is loyal and patriotic

Question 6

‘Macduff was from his mother’s womb untimely ripped’

Answer 6

CRILD:
R = When MD faces MB in the final scene, he reveals to Macbeth and the audience that he was born by caesarean section. This is cathartic for the audience – they know MB has become so evil he must die, and MD kills him, avenging his family’s murders.
C = the natural order is restored and God’s chosen king, Malcolm, takes the throne of Scotland.