MACDUFF 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

• "I have no words; my voice is my sword."

  • emphasises Macduffs heroic qualities
  • draws on key idiom - actions speak louder than words
  • showcases that Macduff is driven by revenge
• "lets make us medicines of our great revenge, to cure this deadly grief"

  • avenging hero creates dichotomy between Macbeth and Macduff, between good and evil
  • metaphor - their revenge on Macbeth will restore the order
  • semantic field of medicine and illness - Macbeth is almost a disease destroying the country and he must be exterminated
  • begins plotting revenge after hearing the slaughter of his family
  • motivated by a desire to hold Macbeth accountable for his sins
• "o horror, horror, horror"

  • emotional reaction to Kings death
  • shakespeare makes use of repetition to emphasise the strength of Macduffs devastated emotions
• "most sacrilegious murder hath broke ope the Lords anointed temple"

  • religious semantic field - "sacrilegious" and "anointed" create an image of sacredness and holiness: Macduffs extreme distress that the king, divinely ordained by God has been callously murdered despite his sacredness
  • hyperbolic language and reaction reinforces how Macduff abides strictly to moral code
  • the murder is almost a personal attack for Macduff
• "I am not treacherous"

  • makes his loyalty explicitly clear
  • shakespeares use of the adjective "treacherous" creates a distance between Macduff and Macbeth, who seems to embody treachery throughout the play
• "turn, hell-hound, turn"

  • repitition of "turn" emphasises the extent to which Macbeth has turned order on its head
  • epithet "hell-hound" highlights true nature of the tyrant king
• "here you may see the tyrant"

  • last thing Macbeth hears before dying
  • poignancy of Macduffs words shine through
  • signifies an end to Macbeths destruction and the beginning of the restoration of order
• "O Scotland, O Scotland... O nation miserable"

  • microcosm for Scotland, emphasising the way his emotions mirror the state of the country
  • Macduff is a foil to Macbeth through his overt patriotism, he mourns the state of Scotland
• "bleed, bleed, poor country"

  • depicts how emotionally connected he is, Macduff personifies Scotland in lamenting (mourning)
  • suggests Scotland is dying under Macbeths reign, captivating Macbeths misantropic nature, a quality that juxtaposes the nature of a king
• “all my pretty chickens in one fell swoop”

  • metaphor
  • shows his vulnerable family
  • shows his vulnerability as well
  • he wants to protect his family