Macduff

We first distinguish Macduff from the other members of the supporting cast when with Lennox he knocks at the gate after the murder of Duncan. The knocking itself is like the hammer-blow of fate, which Macbeth has called down upon himself by having committed the murder. Macduff is the instrument of that fate. This idea begins to emerge as Macduff is distinguished from Lennox because the former enters Duncan's chamber to rouse Duncan only to discover Duncan dead. It is then Macduff who returns shouting horror at the fact of Duncan's murder. It is also Macduff who asks Macbeth why the latter has killed Duncan's attendants. Macduff is further impressed upon our consciousness when we learn of his decision against attending Macbeth's coronation. In discussing the coronation with Lennox, Macduff's ironic tone indicates his suspicion of Macbeth: "Well, may you see things well done there. . . ." Thus, with his few brief appearances and few lines Macduff has become rather important to us. While we cannot as yet understand the full significance of Macduff as one of the knockers at the gate, we do recognise early in the play a basic antagonism between him and Macbeth, an antagonism that begins earlier than that of any other character in the play.

Why Macduff leaves his family.

Whether Macduff has attempted to encourage in others his own distrust of Macbeth, or whether he merely voiced his distrust, or whether he did neither of these, we do not know. We do know that his distrust of Macbeth was great enough for him to refuse a command to appear before Macbeth. The refusal, of course, makes for an untenable situation and Macduff understandably flees Scotland leaving his wife and children. Lady Macduff perhaps half believes her husband to be a traitor. A man who is not a traitor, she says, would not leave his family to a tyrant from whom he himself is running away. But in her distress and confusion Lady Macduff misses the intention of her husband's action. He has left Scotland without word to his family because he did not wish the family to be implicated. Macduff regarded Macbeth as a tyrant but not a mindless murderer of those who were completely innocent. But not warning his family of his flight, Macduff thought to free them of the possibility of any blame. The family would then live comfortably in its home and not become exiles in England. This is the only construction that can be placed on Macduff's actions, for Macduff is neither coward, traitor, nor fool. But even Macduff could not see the depths to which Macbeth would sink.

Symbolic avenger.

Until the point at which his family is murdered, Macduff symbolises the opposition to Macbeth that comes from the good man interested in the welfare of his country. But in England, when Macduff hears of the slaughter of his family, his role changes. He becomes the determined avenger, symbolic of those set upon the destruction of Macbeth because they are personally involved. We can now see why Macduff as the instrument of fate knocked at the gate. Macbeth, having fatefully murdered Duncan, inevitably ended in murdering innocent women and children. The inevitable avenger, therefore, is Macduff, symbolic of the husbands and fathers of the slaughtered innocents. Macbeth then, in killing Duncan, assured the course for the rest of his life and thus sealed his own doom. His doom is Macduff, for that purpose by fate "from his mother's womb / Untimely ripp'd." That is, Macbeth in killing Duncan in effect made sure that eventually a Macduff would kill Macbeth.

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