Macduff

• Macduff is Macbeth’s nemesis.
• He discovers Duncan’s body in Act 2, Scene 3 and challenges Macbeth with ‘wherefore did you so?’ when Macbeth declares that he has killed the grooms.
• Suspicious of Macbeth, Macduff does not attend the coronation nor does he accept Macbeth’s invitation to the banquet, which is taken as a personal insult by the new king.
• Once Banquo is killed, Shakespeare uses Macduff (and Malcolm) to represent the forces of good against the evil reign of Macbeth so that, although we see little of him, we hear about his whereabouts and intentions.
• Macduff joins forces with Malcolm.
• A Scottish nobleman who is suspicious of Macbeth's kingship right from the start.
• With the help of the king's son, Malcolm, he eventually becomes a leader of a crusade to unseat Macbeth.
• "Most sacrilegious murder has broke ope / The Lord's anointed temple"
• "To leave his wife, to leave his babes, / His mansion and his titles in a place / From whence himself he does fly? He loves us not" (Lady Macduff)
• "Not in the legions / of horrid hell can come a devil more damned / In evils to top Macbeth"
• "Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself / Within my sword's length set him"
• "Macduff was from his mother's womb / Untimely ripped"
• "Turn, hell hound, turn!"
• "Hail, King! For, so thou art: behold, where stands / The usurper's cursed head: the time is free"
• Significance: The crusade's mission is to place the rightful king, Malcolm, on the throne, but Macduff also desires vengeance for Macbeth's murder of Macduff's wife and young son. Stands for what is 'right' and 'just'.