Macbeth Act 4, Scene 2

Macbeth Act 4, Scene 2

1. Lady Macduff: "His flight was madness"

   • She is in anger and desperation to Ross - feels like a male conspiracy - a patriarchal society which treats women as idiots
   • She knows it is likely to end in their deaths
   • deliberate contrast to L.Macbeth - Macbeth constantly consults her on his plans

2. L.Macduff: "He loves us not; He wants the natural touch: for the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, Her young ones in her nest"

   • macduff has no love for his family
   • Carries on metaphor of her husbands "flight" - compares him to the behaviour of birds in nature
     • suggest that his leaving was not "natural" - first loyalty should be to defend his family
       • even a bird with a low status in the Chain of Being, "the poor wren" will do
       • Deeply ironic - Macduff is going to kill Macbeth and rid Scotland of a tyrant
         • defending his country, but sacrificing his family - has no real love for his family - simply possessions to be left behind with everything else in the castle
           • choice of symbol "poor wren" - wild bird
             • deliberate constrast with Macduff's metaphor for his wife as a "poor dam" and his children as "pretty chicks"
               • he sees them as domesticated chickens - means it affectionately but because it is constrasted with earlier image, we read it differently
                 • shows they are disposable and killed for a puprpose - like farm animals
                 • Shakespeare criticises the patriarchal view of women as possessions
                   • Logical conclusion is that they too are disposable
                     • This is in contrast to Shakespeare's own marriage
                       • He left his family at 21 to become an actor, he then used his wealth to provide the best home for them he could
                         • meanwhile he only ever lived in lodginngs in London
                           • he bought the second largest house in Stratford for his family - for his wife
                   • this context helps us infer Shakespeare's own disgust at Macduff's behaviour, and sides with Lady
                     • even the evil Macbeth treats his wife better than a typical noble at court - ironic contrast reveals his attack on the patriairchy
                       • Hints that there are social causes to L.Macbeth's desire foor power
                         • prompt witches to try to gain power over men

3. Ross: "Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before. My pretty cousin, Blessing upon you!"

   • L.Macduff is desperate for help from another male, who gives her no protection, only tells her that her husband is "wise", tells her it is not safe to stay, and leaves
   • we sense Shakespeare's disgust at his treatment of her as "pretty cousin" dismissing her with the hint that, because she is "pretty" things might turn out well
     • contrasted with apparently respectful use of "you"
   • Shows inherent misogyny in soceity - women are seen as possessions of men
   • The murderers' access to the castle is suprisingly fast - the castle is a fortress
     • Implies Ross has helped them gain entry
       • The first 3 lines lose their iambic stress - struggling with the dishonesty of his words
         • Shakespeare makes sure it is Ross, rather tahn Lennox, who will tell Macduff of his family's slaughter
           • tells Macduff that his family "were well at peace when I did leave 'em"
             • ironic - not true
             • traditionally people interpret this as Ross trying to avoid delivering this terrible news to Macduff
               • Actually, he uses exactly the same irony as he did with Lady Macduff
                 • "Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward"
                   • When she is dead (worst ceases) her soul will "climb upward" as though to heaven
             • Tells us he was present at their deaths, because that is the meaning of "at peace" - suggests he was an assasin
               • "Traitor"
                 • Shakespeare suggests that there are few "honest men" - gives these words to the son

4. L.Macduff: "Sirrah, you father's dead; And what will you do now? How will you live?"

   • Emphasises the idea that his father is now dead by treating her son as the new thane
     • will become his mother's social superior - switches to the formal "you"
   • her son points out that hse will not have to give him this respect as her superior, because she can get a new husband
     • ironic - she can avoid losing social status to her son only by marrying another man, and submitting to his authority
     • "As birds do, mother"

5. L.Macduff; "What, with worms and flies"

6. L.Macduff: "Why, I can buy me twenty at any market."

   • Points out that men are in fact interchangeable in their lack of worth
     • Her hubband has not been much of a man, so that she could find "twenty" equally inadequate men in a market
       • presenting it as a financial transaction reveals true nature of marriage in Jacobean England
         • As a women from a noble family, she has been sold and traded in exactly the same way, sold into marriage
           • she underlines how disgusting this is, and how this inequality has made men less honourable, less fair less loving
   • Suggests men are all equally bad, she contrasts this with nature, the "natural touch"
     • Men have been trained to be unnatural
       • Not saying men are inherently worse than women, but taht their patriarchal society has trained them to be so.

7. Son: "Then you'll buy 'em to sell again" (BG9)

   • Her vision of this utopia, in which women could buy their own husbands is ambigious
     • She may mean that men would not e worth buying, and she would learn to do without
     • Or equally that because they are not worth buying as a husband she would simply buy them for her amusement or pleasure
   • Her son plays with this idea and suggests that she would then improve them, adding value, so that they can be sold again at a higher price
     • Shakespeare presents the idea that men could be improved by women
       • he imagines a society which actually sold husbands for money and suggests it would be better than the existing society, which sells wives for money
         • Idea presented by the innocent son, shows that his conclusion is obvious: even an innocent child can understand it
       • Alternatively, L.Macbeth creates exactly the husband she wants - Bill could be suggseting that this is the kind of man who would be created, if women were given control of men
         • loving, protective but also willing to kill repeatedly
         • However, you could say that L.Macbeth's lust for power is created by the current patriarchal society

8. Son: "Then the liars and wearers are fools, for there are liars and swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them"