Who Is Malcolm In Macbeth?

Answer The Question

What does Malcolm become in Macbeth

Character Analysis Malcolm – With his brother Donalbain, Malcolm quickly ascertains the danger of remaining in Scotland and flees the country (Act II, Scene 3). By the time he reappears, in Act IV, Scene 3, he has won the support of Edward the Confessor (king of England), he has mobilized troops under Northumberland and Siward, and (to borrow a phrase from King Lear ) he is “every inch a king.” If Macduff is the stereotypical revenger, Malcolm is the embodiment of all that is good in kingship, and this is seen particularly in Act IV, Scene 3, in which he tests the allegiance of Macduff.

His testing of Macduff, although dramatically longwinded, is psychologically accurate. By pretending to be what he is not, he hopes to coax from Macduff a confession of his loyalty. This feature of his character — playing a part in order to strengthen the prospect of good — is in stark contrast to Macbeth, who plays a part in order to advance his own evil.

In the final scene of the play, Malcolm is presented as the future king. His use of the phrase “by the grace of Grace” indicates the importance that he attaches to the service of good and reminds the audience of his direct descent from one who ruled by divine right, as opposed to Macbeth, who usurped the throne.

Who is the real Malcolm in Macbeth?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Malcolm
Macbeth character
Wardell Saunders as Malcolm in a Federal Theatre Project production of Macbeth, 1936
Created by	William Shakespeare
Based on	Malcolm III of Scotland
In-universe information
Family	King Duncan, father Donalbain, younger brother

Malcolm is a character in William Shakespeare ‘s Macbeth (c.1603–1607). The character is based on the historical king Malcolm III of Scotland, and is derived largely from the account in Holinshed’s Chronicles (1587), a history of Britain. He is the elder son of King Duncan, the heir to the throne, and brother to Donalbain,

Why does Malcolm pretend to be evil

Why does Malcolm pretend he is more evil than Macbeth? He is testing Macduff’s integrity because – with all the spies and traitors that Macbeth has created – he is afraid that Macduff might be on Macbeth’s side.

Why did Malcolm lie to Macduff?

Answer and Explanation: Malcolm doesn’t trust Macduff, and knows that Macbeth would do anything to get rid of him. He lies to Macduff in order to determine where Macduff’s loyalty lies.

Why doesn t Malcolm trust Macduff?

Malcolm doesn’t trust Macduff, as a result of the fear Macbeth had created amongst his people. Malcolm in fact believes that Macduff must be supporting Macbeth as (to his knowledge) his family hadn’t been harmed, creating dramatic irony as the audience are aware of how wrong Malcolm is.

What did Malcolm do to Macduff?

Act 4, Scene 3 Macduff meets up with Malcolm in England and the two make plans for how to overthrow Macbeth and take back their kingdom. Malcolm’s a little suspicious of Macduff though, so he attempts to suss out whether the thane is loyal to Scotland, or just in it for himself.

1. After Macduff proves himself loyal, the two of them join up with ten thousand troops to take down Macbeth.
2. Ross arrives, bringing news that Macduff’s family has died, but that if he returns to Scotland, there are a lot of folks who would happily join with him to fight Macbeth.
3. Vowing revenge, Macduff resolves to return to Scotland and murder Macbeth himself.

: Act 4, Scene 3

Is Malcolm a tyrant in Macbeth?

Malcolm’s claim that he would be an even greater tyrant than Macbeth provokes such a genuinely anguished response from Macduff that Malcolm is left with no doubts about his loyalty or trustworthiness. Malcolm is a capable leader.

What kind of character is Malcolm?

Like his father, Malcolm represents stability and lawfulness. But where Duncan stands as an old guard representation of what has come before, Malcolm’s prospects speak to the future. Literalizing the family dynamic, Malcolm doesn’t merely offer a possibility of future peace; he would extend Duncan’s reign directly.

• However, Malcolm’s character also showcases the dangers and burdens of holding such a title.
• When Duncan is killed, Malcolm’s very life presents a challenge to Macbeth’s reign, and he must leave Scotland for fear of being killed.
• In Act IV, Malcolm and Macduff discuss leadership.
• Even as Malcolm initially “admits” his own shortcomings and vices to gauge Macduff’s loyalty, the pair hold common ground in regards to their loyalty and love of Scotland, a crucial thread that speaks to the purely idealistic, if naive, trap of ruling.

A tyrant like Macbeth seeks power for power’s sake, and therefore lacks the loyalty of those who put the nation first, like Duncan and Edward, and Malcolm and Macduff. The younger generation’s hope for a more idealistic and enlightened society pits the viewpoints of Malcolm against those of Macbeth, whose persistent ambitions, expertise on the battlefield, and warring neuroses make him a turbulent, violent force within the play.

1. Malcolm is driven to destroy Macbeth, recruiting Macduff to join him after his family too is killed.
2. Here, Malcolm decides to do what is necessary and stop the usurper.
3. Yet Malcolm still holds onto his humanity, furthering his contrast to Macbeth, who remains a cautionary figure for Malcolm.
4. Macduff encourages Malcolm not to lose sight over what has been lost, as grief, not merely revenge, will keep him grounded when nearly everyone around him falls further into the temptation of power.

Even though it is Macduff who ultimately kills Macbeth, the play ends with Malcolm being sworn in as king, allowing Shakespeare to explore a contrast between the proper inheritance of one’s title versus the act of stealing it. Malcolm’s duty and responsibility prompt him to do what is right for the good of the nation, contrasting with Macbeth’s bloodthirsty attempt to thwart the natural order.

Malcolm is the king by divine rule; Macbeth is a usurper. By the end, the former is rewarded, while the latter meets his demise, thus reinforcing the legitimacy of the line of succession. In his speech boasting of peace and just rulership, the coronation of Malcolm offers a chance for stability, much like what King Duncan stood for.

Malcolm invites everyone to his ceremony, suggesting a new cycle of equality and order and marking a distinct contrast from the conflict that previously plagued the country.

Is Malcolm a good leader in Macbeth?

“Macbeth”: To what extent does Shakespeare present Malcolm as a good leader? Central to Macbeth is the question of what makes a good leader? A country fractured by political and military conflict, Shakespeare’s Scotland is in desperate need of a strong monarch who can unite the thanes and repel invading forces. Yet despite there being a host of possible candidates for this position, from the outset of the play Shakespeare draws our attention to the inadequacy of each and every one.

If Duncan is too credulous, Macbeth is too tyrannical. Whilst Banquo has great integrity, he cannot protect himself. Macduff’s integrity and military capabilities may mean he ostensibly appears to be an ideal leader, he abandons his family in a moment of great peril. Lady Macbeth is an effective persuader, but her gender disqualifies her from seizing any power with her own hands.

And so we are left with Malcolm, Duncan’s son and heir. In the midst of all of this chaos and bloodshed, Malcolm should be able to restore the Divine Right of Kings and return balance to the unsettled natural order. Our first glimpse of Malcolm emphasises his generous nature, and benevolence must surely be a quality required by a successful leader.

When the “bloody” sergeant reports back from battle in Act 1 Scene 2, Shakespeare highlights Malcolm’s connection with his future subjects: Malcolm recalls that “this is the sergeant / Who like a good and hardy soldier fought / ‘Gainst my captivity”. However, although Malcolm’s laudatory attitude here is echoed at the end of the play when he elevates his loyal followers to earls, on closer inspection these words highlight his own failure as a military leader.

Whereas Macbeth unfailingly wields his “brandish’d steel” in the service of King Duncan, Malcolm has been a passive spectator of the heroism of others. Shakespeare continually draws our attention to Malcolm’s reluctance to engage in physical conflict.

• His first instinct after the murder of his father is self-preservation, and so he flees to England, where he laments the actions of the “tyrant” Macbeth, but takes little action until Macduff arrives.
• Then whilst Malcolm is present for the final battle in Act 5, it is notably Macduff who becomes the protagonist, seeking vengeance for his murdered family.

Although it could be argued that Malcolm’s strategy demonstrates great wisdom (the heir to the throne must be preserved, after all), in a world in which military prowess determines success as a leader, he seems to lack the required qualities. So if Shakespeare consistently demonstrates Malcolm’s failings as a military leader, does he present him as an astute political role model? If Duncan’s downfall was his overly trusting nature, surely Malcolm’s scepticism and testing of those around him is a positive character trait, and indicates that he is more akin to the early modern Machiavellian politician than to the medieval commander? When Macduff arrives in England, Malcolm’s first instinct is to test his loyalty.

• Following on as it does from the murder of Macduff’s family, this conversation provides a strange hiatus in the play, and is perhaps a moment for the audience and actors alike to catch their breath prior to the final battle scenes.
• Shakespeare initially portrays Malcolm as distraught at Scotland’s fate, as he invites Macduff to “weep our sad bosoms empty”.

This emotional response to the situation is later contradicted when Malcolm warns Macduff to “dispute like a man”, leading the audience to question his true emotional state; was Malcolm truly grieving so passionately for Scotland, or is he now concealing his emotions on hearing of the slaughter of the Macduffs? Further evidence of the ease with which Malcolm can equivocate is found when he explains that he is unfit to be king because of his “confineless harms”.

Whilst he “unspeak own detraction”, the audience is left unsure as to Malcolm’s true identity and fitness to rule. Being aligned with Edward the Confessor goes some way to establishing a sense of Malcolm’s integrity – but is this enough to redeem him? Despite these tensions in his character, it is Malcolm who becomes the new king and who is fittingly given the final lines of the play.

Through Malcolm’s condemnation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (“this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen”), Shakespeare highlights that the new king will eschew such violence and corruption in favour of generosity and morality, which is reflected in the liberal giving out of honours.

• Yet the harmony and order of the play’s final rhyming couplets are undermined by echoes of earlier scenes and unresolved issues.
• Malcolm states that he will “plant newly”, just as Duncan “plant” Macbeth in Act 1.
• Malcolm gives honours, just as Duncan gave Macbeth the role of Thane of Cawdor.
• It was Malcolm who announced the execution of the original Thane of Cawdor in Act 1, and in Act 5 it is Malcolm again who celebrates the death of the most recent holder of that title.

More unsettling, perhaps, is Malcolm’s lack of heir and the audience’s knowledge that Fleance has been prophesied as the next King of Scotland. So the play’s final tableau is of a temporary peace established by a flawed king; Shakespeare hints at the impossibility of “happy endings” in a world which seems irrevocably caught in cycles of violence and betrayal.

What is the relationship between Malcolm and Macduff

Analysis: Act 4: Scenes 1–3 – The witches are vaguely absurd figures, with their rhymes and beards and capering, but they are also clearly sinister, possessing a great deal of power over events. Are they simply independent agents playing mischievously and cruelly with human events? Or are the “weird sisters” agents of fate, betokening the inevitable? The word weird descends etymologically from the Anglo-Saxon word wyrd, which means “fate” or “doom,” and the three witches bear a striking resemblance to the Fates, female characters in both Norse and Greek mythology.

Perhaps their prophecies are constructed to wreak havoc in the minds of the hearers, so that they become self-fulfilling. It is doubtful, for instance, that Macbeth would have killed Duncan if not for his meeting with the witches. On the other hand, the sisters’ prophecies may be accurate readings of the future.

After all, when Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane at the play’s end, the soldiers bearing the branches have not heard of the prophecy. Read more about how the witches’ prophecies foreshadow events in the play. Whatever the nature of the witches’ prophecies, their sheer inscrutability is as important as any reading of their motivations and natures.

The witches stand outside the limits of human comprehension. They seem to represent the part of human beings in which ambition and sin originate—an incomprehensible and unconscious part of the human psyche. In this sense, they almost seem to belong to a Christian framework, as supernatural embodiments of the Christian concept of original sin.

Indeed, many critics have argued that Macbeth, a remarkably simple story of temptation, fall, and retribution, is the most explicitly Christian of Shakespeare’s great tragedies. If so, however, it is a dark Christianity, one more concerned with the bloody consequences of sin than with grace or divine love.

Perhaps it would be better to say that Macbeth is the most orderly and just of the tragedies, insofar as evil deeds lead first to psychological torment and then to destruction. The nihilism of King Lear, in which the very idea of divine justice seems laughable, is absent in Macbeth —divine justice, whether Christian or not, is a palpable force hounding Macbeth toward his inevitable end.

Read more about the significance of witchcraft in Macbeth, The witches’ prophecies allow Macbeth, whose sense of doom is mounting, to tell himself that everything may yet be well. For the audience, which lacks Macbeth’s misguided confidence, the strange apparitions act as symbols that foreshadow the way the prophecies will be fulfilled.

The armored head suggests war or rebellion, a telling image when connected to the apparition’s warning about Macduff. The bloody child obliquely refers to Macduff’s birth by cesarean section—he is not “of woman born”—attaching a clear irony to a comment that Macbeth takes at face value. The crowned child is Malcolm.

He carries a tree, just as his soldiers will later carry tree branches from Birnam Wood to Dunsinane. Finally, the procession of kings reveals the future line of kings, all descended from Banquo. Some of those kings carry two balls and three scepters, the royal insignia of Great Britain—alluding to the fact that James I, Shakespeare’s patron, claimed descent from the historical Banquo.

The mirror carried by the last figure may have been meant to reflect King James, sitting in the audience, to himself. Read more about allusions in Macbeth, The murder of Lady Macduff and her young son in Act 4, scene 2, marks the moment in which Macbeth descends into utter madness, killing neither for political gain nor to silence an enemy, but simply out of a furious desire to do harm.

As Malcolm and Macduff reason in Act 4, scene 3, Macbeth’s is the worst possible method of kingship. It is a political approach without moral legitimacy because it is not founded on loyalty to the state. Their conversation reflects an important theme in the play—the nature of true kingship, which is embodied by Duncan and King Edward, as opposed to the tyranny of Macbeth.

In the end, a true king seems to be one motivated by love of his kingdom more than by pure self-interest. In a sense, both Malcolm and Macduff share this virtue—the love they hold for Scotland unites them in opposition to Macbeth, and grants their attempt to seize power a moral legitimacy that Macbeth’s lacked.

Read more about the difference between kingship and tyranny as a theme. Macduff and Malcolm are allies, but Macduff also serves as a teacher to Malcolm. Malcolm believes himself to be crafty and intuitive, as his test of Macduff shows. Yet, he has a perverted idea of manhood that is in line with Macbeth’s.

When Ross brings word of Lady Macduff’s murder, Malcolm tells Macduff: “Dispute it like a man” (4.3.221). Macduff answers, “I shall do so, / But I must also feel it as a man” (4.3.222–223). Macduff shows that manhood comprises more than aggression and murder; allowing oneself to be sensitive and to feel grief is also necessary.

This is an important lesson for Malcolm to learn if he is to be a judicious, honest, and compassionate king. When, in Act 5, scene 11, Malcolm voices his sorrow for Siward’s son, he demonstrates that he has taken Macduff’s instruction to heart.

Is Malcolm a hero in Macbeth?

The third in a series of essay on Macbeth. The first is on the crucial soliloquy ‘If it were done’, the second is on ‘The real Lady Macbeth’. There are so many doubles in Macbeth, a play of ‘doubling’ and ‘troubling’, as the witches rhyme. During the course of this play two kings rule Scotland.

The idea of kingship is crucial to the ‘cultural context’ of this play, and I am now going to look at two other kings of the play. One of these, Edward of England, we do not see but we do hear of. The other is of course Malcolm, the man who takes over from Macbeth after the end of of the play, when he is crowned at Scone.

He rids Scotland of its tyrant, and is the medicine of the sickly weal, and therefore might be considered the play’s ‘hero’ in the popular understanding of that concept. So this essay looks at the latter part of the story, including the scene set in England, and examines Malcolm and Macduff in particular.

1. Act IV scene iii is the only scene set outside Scotland, and is by far the longest scene in the play.
2. Bear with me now briefly for some statistics (line counts depend on the edition of the play).
3. I want to compare Macbeth, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, to Hamlet, his longest ( The Comedy of Errors is the shortest play).

Macbeth is a play that is not only short, but has an extraordinary number of scenes considering its length. So :

Macbeth has 28 scenes, with an average of 63 lines each. Hamlet has just 20 scenes, with an average of 193 lines each. Macbeth in total is 1755 lines long. Hamlet is 3856 lines long (so Macbeth is just 45% the length of Hamlet ).

The most dramatic and important scenes in Macbeth are extraordinarily short – the crucial I vii (the subject of the first of these essays) is just 82 lines long, and the amazing murder scene, II ii, just 74 of the most tense and brilliant lines ever written.

• All these staccato scenes are for a purpose: Shakespeare does know what he is doing.
• They enact the hectic headlong descent of Macbeth into moral horror, and of Scotland into chaotic violence, just as the leisurely stretched-out scenes of Hamlet enact the Prince’s uncertain meandering towards his purpose.

Macbeth is all about speed, the way the central character desperately o’erleaps obstacles, the way he suppresses the pauser, reason, the way he tries to stop thinking so that he does not stop doing. When Macduff escapes his clutches by crossing the border to England, he says : The flighty purpose never is o’ertook Unless the deed go with it; from this moment The very firstlings of my heart shall be ·The firstlings of my hand.

And even now, To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done: The castle of Macduff I will surprise; Seize upon Fife; give to the edge o’ the sword His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool; This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool. He is determined that from now on there will be no pause between thinking and doing.

‘It’ will be thought-and-done. So why, given this wonderfully taut writing for the first three acts, does Shakespeare then write a scene of 240 lines, much of which seem repetitive, and which is dominated by a slightly tedious and definitely peculiar testing of Macduff? Act IV scene iii is, as I said earlier, the only scene set outside Scotland, and it comes almost as a pause in the action, a holiday from the grim intense darkness of the earlier scenes.

For a start, even the weather and the light seem different in England: the first line is Malcolm’s Let us seek out some desolate shade, and there / Weep our sad bosoms empty, So this is a place where there is so much light that you need to hunt for shade, whereas in Scotland darkness seems to hunt you down, a force for which we might borrow Milton’s famous paradoxical phrase from Paradise Lost, ‘darkness visible’.

Here at last are two of the possible ‘heroes’ of the play – the rightful heir, and a decent patriotic Thane who earlier made clear his distaste for and distrust of the new King, and who then went to England for help (at the expense of his own family’s lives).

• And in the end, between them, these two men do indeed serve the main functions of a ‘hero’: Macduff kills Macbeth, and Malcolm replaces him on the throne.
• Again, doubleness: in this play, it takes two to make a hero.
• Whether they feel like heroes to us is another matter.
• Now to a paragraph from one of Tony Tanner’s superb introductions to the plays in Prefaces to Shakespeare :- There is a strong Elizabethan feeling that virtue is associated with stillness (or slow, decorous movements) Macbeth creates a fearful world in which all those under him or under his sway can only ‘float upon a wild and violent sea/ Each way and move.’ It is in the context of this vortex of violent motion created by Macbeth that one must understand the long, slow, seemingly pointlessly protracted scene between Macduff and Malcolm in England.

As one critic very aptly describes it, ‘the scene is like a slow eddy on the edge of a swift current.’ As Malcolm explains, he cannot trust anything or anyone emerging from Macbeth’s darkened Scotland – ‘modest wisdom plucks me / From over-credulous haste.’ The play starts in ‘haste’ and seems to get ever vertiginously quicker.

But here it is, laboriously, slowed down. The tide is beginning to turn. As Tanner points out, the Malcolm we now get to know properly for the first time is very cautious, a man of modest wisdom, who hurries nothing. We’ve hardly known him until now – we saw him only briefly in Scotland previously, learning in I ii that he was in ‘captivity’ during the war – not much of an action hero then.

Subsequently we saw him appointed Prince of Cumberland in I iv. Most importantly, we saw his reaction after his father was killed. In II iii it is left to Macduff and Banquo to express the most horror about the regicide while Malcolm only weakly replies to Macduff’s Your royal father’s murdered with O, by whom?, a single stunned phrase before he and his brother Donalbain decide to flee.

He says Our safest way / Is to avoid the aim, and this caution or modest wisdom is all we know of him. Not exactly McSuperman. Malcolm’s long testing of the unimaginative and eventually bewildered Macduff is, we might feel, only proper. We have had quite enough of someone who’s suppressed his pauser, reason, thank you very much.

Malcolm pinpoints exactly what is wrong with Macbeth’s rule in his statement boundless intemperance in nature is a tyranny. And in his lines on kingship, he accurately sets out the king-becoming graces – Justice, Verity, temp’rance and so on (the third in that list harking back to the crucial idea of moderate balance in nature).

We have every reason to believe that he will be a decent King: he is clearly patriotic and certainly not self-serving. Let me turn for a moment to the fourth image of kingship we have in the play – the description of the English king Edward. He is described by the Lord in III vi as ‘most pious’, and by Malcolm in IV iii as a man who cures the strangely-visited people who come to see him :- How he solicits heaven, Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people, All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye, The mere despair of surgery, he cures, Hanging a golden stamp about their necks, Put on with holy prayers: and ’tis spoken, To the succeeding royalty he leaves The healing benediction.

With this strange virtue, He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy, And sundry blessings hang about his throne, That speak him full of grace. So obviously he is the mirror opposite to Macbeth. If Edward is the ideal King, how will the Malcolm we are getting to know in IV iii measure up? Fintan O’Toole in his book Shakespeare is Hard, But So Is Life, is damning :- Malcolm is the embodiment of the order that is to be restored, the play’s location of active goodness.

• But there is an enormous tension for anyone watching the play between what we know about Malcolm and what we feel about him, between what he says and the way he says it.
• We know that he is good, but we feel that he is boring.
• We agree with what he says, but wish he would either get on with it or say it with even a little of the poetic force Macbeth can manage.

Morally, we are on his side, dramatically we are against him. We want him to win, but we don’t want to have to listen to him Macbeth moves quickly and feels deeply; Malcolm moves slowly and has no capacity for deep feeling whatsoever. As O’Toole suggests, in real life we would be on Malcolm’s side, warmly welcoming him as the medicine of the sickly weal, in the words of Caithness in V ii.

1. But this is not real life; it is a drama and a tragedy, and as we listen to Malcolm’s bland and clichéd comforting of Macduff about the slaughter of the latter’s family, we are unlikely to feel our hearts lift.
2. Question: Imagine Shakespeare had written a sequel to this play and it had just been rediscovered.

How excited would you be in seeing it performed if you heard its title was Malcolm ? Act V scene ix is the final one of the play, in which Malcolm takes power. Now we are back to short scenes – just 41 lines in which to make us feel that the natural order has been restored.

1. Here is Fintan O’Toole again: this is almost an exact echo of Duncan’s speech near the beginning of the play when the earlier battle is concluded, the succession to the throne is settled, a traitor (Macdonwald) beheaded, rewards are promised and titles are given out.
2. Malcolm speaks his last speech with a battle won, the succession to the throne settled, a traitor beheaded (Macduff has just come in with Macduff’s head) and in it he promises rewards and distributes titles.

And we know what happened after Duncan’s speech – instead of being a prelude to peace, order and a smooth handing-on of the crown by Macbeth. Does anyone in the audience join in that call of ‘Hail King of Scotland’? When the lights go up, do we all smile at each other in relief that everything has worked out all right in the end? The crucial importance of Malcolm in this play is not as a hero.

There is only one character who constantly grabs our attention, and this is the key thing: Shakespeare does not present us with any figure who in the end distracts or detracts from him, not Lady Macbeth (who gradually fades from our attention, not the witches (their last scene is in Act 4), not the bluff decent Macduff (who actually kills Macbeth), and not the responsible, humane and in the end ordinary Malcolm.

When we leave the theatre only one man is in our minds, and he is complex, poetic, imaginative, horrifying, murderous, tragic.

Who helped Malcolm defeat Macbeth?

MacBeth – King of Scotland 1040 – 57 – Mac Bethad mac Findláich or MacBeth as he is known in English, the Mormaer of Moray, claimed the throne on his own behalf and that of his wife Grauch, and after the death of Duncan made himself king in his place. Respected for his strong leadership qualities, MacBeth was a wise king who ruled successfully for 17 years.

1. He lived in a fortified castle at Dunsinane north of Perth.
2. His rule was secure enough for him to go on a pilgrimage to Rome in 1050.
3. However the peace was not to last: Duncan’s son Malcolm had fled to Northumbria after the defeat of his father and had never given up his claim to the throne.
4. In 1054 with the support of Earl Siward, he led an army against MacBeth, defeating him at the battle of Dunsinnan.

MacBeth remained king, restoring Malcolm’s lands to him. But in 1057 at Lumphanan in Aberdeenshire on 15th August, MacBeth was finally defeated and killed and Malcolm became King.

Does Macbeth fear Malcolm?

Macbeth’s Fear of Fear In his report of Macbeth’s victory over the rebels, a sergeant emphasizes Macbeth’s courage. Even when it looks like Fortune is smiling on the enemy, “brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name- / Disdaining Fortune” (1.2.16-17) plunges fearlessly into battle and wins the victory. Just after Macbeth hears the witches’ prophecies, Ross and Angus tell him that he has been named Thane of Cawdor. Upon hearing this, Macbeth goes into a trance-like state as he tries to sort things out. He tells himself that the witches’ prophecies can’t be bad, because they have foretold a truth. On the other hand, if the witches’ prophecies are good, he asks himself, “why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, / Against the use of nature?” (1.3.134-137), “Suggestion” means “temptation,” so Macbeth is asking himself why he feels himself giving into temptation, especially a temptation that makes his heart race and his hair stand on end. He goes on to reflect that “Present fears / Are less than horrible imaginings” (1.3.1137-38), He means that the fear that you feel in the face of actual danger is not nearly so bad as the fear of imagined danger. Apparently he’s trying to talk himself into believing that the murder which he is tempted to do can’t possibly be as frightening as he now feels it is. When King Duncan announces that Malcolm is heir to the throne, Macbeth sees that as a roadblock, then says to the heavens, “Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires: / The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be, / Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see” (1.4.50-53), He’s thinking about committing murder. He wants his own eye to blind itself (“wink”) while he’s doing it, but he wants it done, even if his eye will be afraid to look at it afterwards. It doesn’t appear that he is afraid of getting caught and being punished. His fear of murder seems to be like the fear of the sight of blood – irrational and instinctual. When she receives Macbeth’s letter about the witches’ prophecies, Lady Macbeth says to her absent husband, “Thou wouldst be great; / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it” (1.5.18-20), She, like the witches, believes that foul is fair. Ambition “should” be accompanied by “illness.” Yet she does not believe that Macbeth is really good. She says that he “wouldst not play false, / And yet wouldst wrongly win” (1.5.21-22), In her view, he’s something of a coward, because he has that within him that tells him what he must do if he is to have the throne, but he’s afraid to do it. She tells her absent husband that he should hurry home so that she can “chastise with the valour of my tongue / All that impedes thee from the golden round” (1.5.27-28), In other words, she plans to nag him until he’s ashamed of himself for being afraid to be bad. After all, it’s only that fear that’s keeping him from wearing the crown. In the midst of a feast that he’s giving for King Duncan, Macbeth steps aside to think about the murder he’s planning. He says to himself, “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well / It were done quickly (1.7.1-2), That is, if everything could be over with as soon as Duncan is killed, then it would be best for Macbeth to kill him quickly. If only, Macbeth thinks, the assassination could be “the be-all and the end-all-here / But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, / We’ld jump the life to come” (1.7.5-7), Where Macbeth says “but here,” we would say “just here” or “only here.” In other words, Macbeth knows that he can get away with murder only here on earth. In the afterlife he will certainly be punished. He also knows that the afterlife is very long; it’s like a boundless ocean, and our life is only a “bank or shoal” on the edge of that ocean. Nevertheless, if one murder could be the last murder, he would take his chances with the afterlife. The problem is, it’s not very likely to be “done when ’tis done,” and Macbeth knows this, too. He knows that-as we say-what goes around comes around, that acts of violence are “Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return / To plague the inventor” (1.7.9-10), Of course, Macbeth has good reason to be afraid. In a warrior society such as his, there would be plenty of kith and kin eager to avenge the murder of any man, even if he weren’t a king. To put it bluntly, Macbeth thinks that he’s likely to get caught, and he’s about to chicken out. Only at this point does he start thinking of other reasons that he shouldn’t kill his king, and when his wife comes looking for him, he tells her he’s decided not to do it. She responds by telling him that if he’s going to go back on his word, he doesn’t really love her, and he’s a coward, no better than the “poor cat i’ the adage” (1.7.45), who wants a fish, but doesn’t want to get its feet wet. Macbeth tries to defend himself by saying, “I dare do all that may become a man; / Who dares do more is none” (1.7.46-47), Macbeth also asks what will happen if they fail, and his wife pooh-poohs the very idea, exclaiming, “We fail! / But screw your courage to the sticking-place, / And we’ll not fail” (1.7.61), She wins the argument. After Macbeth murders King Duncan, he comes back to his wife with the bloody daggers in his bloody hands. She tells him that he must return and place the daggers with the King’s grooms. Macbeth, however, is paralyzed with the horror of what he has done. He says, “I’ll go no more: / I am afraid to think what I have done; / Look on’t again I dare not” (2.2.47-49), This makes Lady Macbeth scornful of her husband. She takes the daggers from him and tells him that it’s childish to be afraid of the sleeping or the dead. And she’s not afraid of blood, either. She says, “If he do bleed, / I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal / For it must seem their guilt” (2.2.52-54), With these bitter words, she goes to finish her husband’s job for him. When Lady Macbeth returns, she comments, “My hands are of your colour; but I shame / To wear a heart so white” (2.2.61-62), She means that her hands are red, too (because she has been busy smearing the King’s blood on the grooms), but that she would be ashamed to have a heart as white as Macbeth’s. A white heart is white because it has no blood, and the person with a white heart is a coward. After Macduff discovers the body of King Duncan, he rushes out to announce the horror, and Macbeth rushes up to the king’s chamber and kills the sleeping grooms. When Macduff asks him why he killed the grooms, Macbeth replies, Who could refrain, / That had a heart to love, and in that heart / Courage to make’s love known?” (2.3.116-118), No one asks just how much courage it takes to kill two defenseless men. After he has murdered King Duncan and become king himself, Macbeth has a soliloquy in which he reveals that being king isn’t enough; he needs to feel safe in the position, and he has reasons to fear Banquo: “To be thus is nothing; / But to be safely thus.-Our fears in Banquo / Stick deep” (3.1.47-49), He doesn’t mention what we might think is the obvious reason for fearing Banquo – that Banquo heard the witches’ prophecy and could suspect Macbeth of murder. He seems to fear Banquo on general grounds, because Banquo has “royalty of nature” (3.1.49), and courage, and wisdom. Macbeth says of Banquo, “under him, / My Genius is rebuked” (3.1.54-55), A man’s “Genius” is his guardian spirit, but Macbeth isn’t being particularly mystic here. He feels that Banquo is naturally superior to him, and just being near Banquo makes Macbeth feel ashamed of himself. For example, he recalls, Banquo defied the witches and challenged them to speak to him. (In contrast, we should remember, the witches’ prophecy put Macbeth into a kind of trance, a reverie of ambition and murder.) After he has murdered King Duncan and become king, Macbeth arranges for the murder of Banquo, just to be safe. He says that he would rather see “the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer” (3.2.16), than continue to “eat our meal in fear and sleep / In the affliction of these terrible dreams / That shake us nightly” (3.2.17-19), When Banquo’s bloody ghost appears at Macbeth’s royal banquet, Macbeth panics. He stares and speaks to the ghost, which no one else can see. His wife takes him aside, and asks, “Are you a man?” (3.4.57), He answers, “Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that / Which might appall the devil” (3.4.58-59), His wife is not impressed. She exclaims sarcastically, “O proper stuff!” Then she tells him that “This is the very painting of your fear: / This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said, / Led you to Duncan” (3.4.59-62), She also tells him that he’s making ridiculous faces, so that he reminds her of a woman telling a scary story that she heard from her grandmother. His fear is shameful because, “When all’s done, / You look but on a stool” (3.4.66-67) When the ghost appears again, Macbeth is determined to face it down. He tells it that he dares to do anything a man can do. He would not tremble if the Ghost should take the shape of a terrible beast. “Or be alive again, / And dare me to the desert with thy sword; / If trembling I inhabit then, protest me / The baby of a girl” (3.4.102-105), A “desert” doesn’t have to have sand in it; it’s just any deserted place where they could be alone and fight man to man. “Protest” means “proclaim,” and “if trembling I inhabit” means “if I live inside a trembling body.” Macbeth is daring the Ghost to come alive and fight. If it does, and Macbeth shows fear, then it can tell the world that Macbeth is a little doll-baby. Macbeth’s defiance seems to work, because the ghost leaves. Using the word “so” as we do when we say “so much for that,” Macbeth expresses his satisfaction and asks his guests to stay seated: “Why, so: being gone, / I am a man again. Pray you, sit still” (3.4.106-107), But then, not realizing that he was the only one who saw the ghost, he tells his guests that he’s starting to question himself because “you can behold such sights, / And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, / When mine is blanched with fear” (3.4.113-115), He thinks that anyone would be frightened by such a sight, and he’s wondering why he’s the only one who feels fear. All of this just creates more amazement in his guests, and Lady Macbeth gets them out of the room as quickly as she can, before they can ask too many questions. Just before Macbeth goes to visit the witches, Hecate orders them to prepare to create illusions that will make Macbeth “spurn fate, scorn death, and bear / His hopes ‘bove wisdom, grace and fear” (3.5.30-31), Hecate knows that fear is your friend, and that its opposite is dangerous, for “security / Is mortals’ chiefest enemy” (3.5.32-33), When the witches present the apparitions to Macbeth, it is their intention to lure him into the idea that he has nothing to fear. The first apparition cries “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; / Beware the thane of Fife” (4.1.71-72), This is exactly what Macbeth was thinking even before he saw the apparition, but the second apparition tells him to “Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth” (4.1.81), Upon hearing this, Macbeth reasons that if “none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth,” then he doesn’t need to “beware Macduff.” “Then live, Macduff,” Macbeth says to himself, “what need I fear of thee?” (4.1.82), But in the next breath he changes his tune, saying, “yet I’ll make assurance double sure, / And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live; / That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies” (4.1.83-85), Macbeth is going to murder Macduff, to make sure that fate keeps its promises. That way he can prove that he’s not afraid of either fate or Macduff. As Macbeth sits in the royal castle awaiting the battle with Malcolm’s forces, he tries to persuade himself that he is not afraid. He swears that “Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane, / I cannot taint with fear” (5.3.2-3), And he says he’s not afraid of Malcolm, either, because Malcolm is a boy who was born of woman. Believing himself protected by the witches’ prophecies, Macbeth declares, “The mind I sway by and the heart I bear / Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear” (5.3.9-10), Then, when a frightened servant brings news of the approach of an army of ten thousand, Macbeth calls him names, and mocks him, and also says something revealing: “Death of thy soul! those linen cheeks of thine / Are counsellors to fear” (5.3.16-17), A counsellor is someone who gives advice, so “counsellors to fear” would tell someone to be afraid. Macbeth feels that the boy’s pale cheeks are telling him that he, too, should be afraid, and Macbeth is determined to not feel fear. At the end of the scene, Macbeth is still telling himself that he is not afraid. He puts on his armor and rushes out, saying “I will not be afraid of death and bane, / Till Birnam forest come to Dunsinane” (5.3.59-60), As the English and Scottish forces approach Dunsinane, Macbeth declares that the castle can withstand any siege, but his boasting is interrupted by ” A cry of women within ” (5.5.7, s.d.), While Seyton goes to investigate the noise, Macbeth congratulates himself on his own savageness, saying, “I have almost forgot the taste of fears” (5.5.9), There was a time, he says, when such a shriek in the night would have given him the chills and when a story of horror would have made his hair stand on end. But now, “I have supp’d full with horrors; / Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts, / Cannot once start me” (5.5.13-15), However, when he receives the news that Birnam wood is moving, he seems to feel his courage waning. He says, “I pull in resolution, and begin / To doubt the equivocation of the fiend / That lies like truth” (5.5.42-44), However it’s too late for him to do anything but fight on. When Malcolm’s forces attack, Macbeth’s soldiers all switch sides as soon as they get a chance, and Macbeth has to fight alone. His only hope is the prophecy of the second apparition, so he says to himself, “What’s he / That was not born of woman? Such a one / Am I to fear, or none” (5.7.2-4), At this point Young Siward enters, and asks Macbeth his name. Macbeth tells the boy that he doesn’t really want to hear his name, because it will make him afraid. This show of arrogance, however, doesn’t cow Young Siward, and they fight. Macbeth kills the boy, and exults in his own invulnerability: “Thou wast born of woman / But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, / Brandish’d by man that’s of a woman born” (5.7.11-13), In the last scene of the play, Macbeth boasts to Macduff, “I bear a charmed life, which must not yield, / To one of woman born” (5.8.12-13). Macduff replies, “Despair thy charm / And let the angel whom thou still hast served / Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb / Untimely ripp’d” (5.8.16-19), Hearing this, Macbeth curses Macduff, because what he has said has “cow’d my better part of man” (5.8.18), After this confession of fear, Macbeth curses the fiends who have lied to him and tells Macduff that he won’t fight him. Macduff, however, doesn’t give him much of a choice. He says, “Then yield thee, coward, / And live to be the show and gaze o’ the time” (5.8.23-24), In other words, if Macbeth doesn’t fight, he’ll be taken captive and paraded around, so that everyone can jeer at the cowardly tyrant. Given this alternative, Macbeth chooses to fight.

Why does Malcolm want revenge?

Topics:	Macbeth Revenge
Words:	1136
Pages:	2 This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students’ samples.

In the tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare puts into words the scarring and detrimental effects of human nature. William Shakespeare creates a story of betrayal, vengeance, and redemption to conceive a bitter-sweet tale. At the forefront of Macbeth is revenge.

1. As the main character Macbeth undergoes drastic measures to ensure prominence, many fall into his path of destruction, becoming victims of instability and impulsivity.
2. Two vital characters that experience the wake of Macbeth’s carnage are Malcolm and Macduff.
3. Both Malcolm and Macduff are of power, with Malcolm being the son and heir to King Duncan, and Macduff is the Thane of Fife.

While Macbeth is guiding himself to glory, Malcolm and Macduff suffer from the loss of loved ones at the hands of Macbeth’s greed. Throughout the plot of Macbeth, Malcolm and Macduff endure situations of which prompt retaliation, yet the men handle revenge distinctly due to the contrast of healthy and logical perspectives.

1. Macbeth, the main character of the play Macbeth, is known as the Thane of Glamis and considered a war hero amongst Scotland, a loyal subject to King Duncan.
2. Once capturing defeat from enemies of Scotland, Macbeth and his companion, Banquo encounter three mysterious witches that lure the men and deliver enriching prophecies.

Macbeth was advised that he would be appointed Thane of Cawdor and then he shall be king of Scotland. What is unknown is the fact that the prophecy would soon belittle Macbeth, witnessing as a once loyal and trusted man, lowers himself to such titles as a traitor and murderer.

1. Macbeth acts on the worthless prophecy of the witches and becomes blinded by ill glory.
2. What the prophecy provokes is evil injustice and cruelty enacted by Macbeth, which in return will cause vengeance amongst the victims of Macbeth’s immorality, Malcolm and Macduff.
3. The reader observes the tribulations encountered by Malcolm and Macduff and how both men act out of the unfortunate circumstances.

As Macbeth seeks out the prophecy, he is soon fascinated by the idea of becoming king. What the witches create in Macbeth is an idea, and in the mind of someone like Macbeth who harbors no self-control, it allows the infestation of greedy thoughts. Once Macbeth realizes that the only way to assume title as king is through the murder of King Duncan, treasonous feelings plague his mind.

• Following the prophecy and Macbeth’s promotion to Thane of Cawdor, it does not take long before the murder of King Duncan transpires, and the entire kingdom is at large in search of peace.
• Macbeth and Lady Macbeth seek out blame from the drunken guards in charge of protecting the king, and momentarily, it works.

The heir of the throne and son of Duncan, Malcolm, resorts to leaving Scotland and fleeing to England, out of fear for his life. Following Malcolm is Macduff, who heads to Scotland due to the brutal reign occurring in Scotland. While in England, Macduff creates a vulnerable situation where his family is in the path of Macbeth’s paranoia, ultimately resulting in the murder of Macduff’s family.

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Place Order Revenge is the definition of inflicting harm to someone that has brought suffering to others. Macbeth aggravates hatred amongst the character of Malcolm and Macduff, as unjustly, flesh, and blood become sacrifices of Macbeth’s tyranny. The nature of which Malcolm and Macduff act out vengeance contrast in the means of aggression and provocation.

1. When learning of the murder of his father, Malcolm retreats to England, seeing as the danger was occurring and his life may be at stake.
2. Malcolm’s concept of revenge is simple, turning the cheek, a technique in retaliation that is healthy and logical (Berglas, 71).
3. As Malcolm possessed inquires that lead his suspicions to Macbeth, he resorted to exiting the treasonous situation and remaining safe.

Although unintentional, Malcolm’s exit from Scotland resulted in the further deterioration of Macbeth’s mind and increased paranoia. The best revenge occurs when the one that suffers tragedy achieves social and personal success significant in relation to the offense (Berglas, 71).

1. What Malcolm presents is a logical and sound form of vengeance.
2. By merely exiting out of Macbeth’s toxic environment, Malcolm allows Macbeth to believe that he has gotten away with murder, thus pushing Macbeth further and toward his eventual downfall.
3. What Malcolm achieves through waiting to seek out Macbeth’s demise is the title as king, as Macbeth positions himself to his inevitable defeat, Malcolm therefore gains rightful heir as king.

Separating Malcolm from Macduff is patience and rationality. As the murders committed by Macbeth justified retaliation from both men, the way Macduff approached revenge differed from Malcolm in the aspect of lacking a healthy perspective. Macduff abandons his family to join Malcolm in England to plan the war against Macbeth, leaving the paranoia of Macbeth to commit heinous and unnecessary actions.

• Once learning of the bloodshed of his family, Macduff seems to disassociate from reality, and then rage ensues.
• What can only result from such anger is action, something of which Malcolm demands from Macduff, insisting that he act on the passion instilled in himself and kill Macbeth.
• The concept of revenge builds on the idea that it is connected to pain, allowing an eye-for-an-eye mindset to be unleashed (Berglas, 72).

Macduff’s method of attack runs on emotion, had Malcolm been absent and unable to encourage Macduff to utilize anger and rage as ambition, Macbeth might have won. Coincidentally, Malcolm witnessing Macduff’s pain granted him the ability to relive the bitterness he felt when learning of his father’s murder.

1. As Malcolm was unsure of who murdered his father, he never entitled himself to directed anger, seeing as Macduff undergoes a similar fate, Malcolm recognizes the pain of losing his father; something essential to rightful revenge (Berglas, 72).
2. Without the sound perspective of Malcolm, Macduff’s lust for retaliation had the potential to overpower the means of organized rebellion, surrendering a situation to which Macbeth had a chance to defeat the sensitive and emotional Macduff.

Ultimately, Malcolm presents revenge through logic, as Macduff approaches vengeance through emotion. The role of revenge in Macbeth is crucial to Macbeth’s defeat; however, had his downfall been possible without Malcolm? Aware that Malcolm argues against rash reprisal, it is evident his perspective on vengeance is healthier and logical.

Why does Malcolm lose his flaws?

In testing Macduff, Malcolm lists all the characteristics of a tyrant. These are voluptuousness (sexual pleasure), avarice and a lack of kingly graces. By pretending that these are his personal faults, Malcolm points out that these are the marks of a tyrant – and by implication Macbeth’s.

What IQ does Malcolm have?

Characters. Malcolm (played by Frankie Muniz) is the title character of the series. Malcolm is a genius with an IQ of 165 and a photographic memory. He is placed in a class for gifted students (or ‘Krelboynes’ as they are known at the school).

Why did Malcolm test Macduff’s loyalty

Summary and Analysis Act IV: Scene 3 – Summary In England, Duncan ‘s son Malcolm tests the loyalty of his newest recruit, Macduff, By demeaning his own nobility and professing himself to be a greater tyrant than Macbeth, Malcolm hopes to goad Macduff into an open display of his loyalties.

1. This attempt at reverse psychology has its desired effect.
2. Macduff is thrown into a fit of anger against the “untitled tyrant” Macbeth, and Malcolm enlists his help in the struggle.
3. When Ross appears with news of the slaughter of Macduff’s family, Macduff is finally convinced not only to engage in the rebel army but also to take personal revenge upon Macbeth.

This scene also includes a passage in which it is reported that England’s king, Edward the Confessor, has provided more than political aid to Malcolm; he has been healing the sick by supernatural means. Analysis This scene develops further the important issues of loyalty and courage found in the preceding scene, and it is structured in two halves: the first concerns the testing of Macduff’s loyalty by Malcolm; the second evokes the great passion of Macduff in the face of terrible grief and his sworn revenge on Macbeth.

1. It is helpful to think of this scene as a job interview.
2. Malcolm begins by suggesting that Macduff may be prepared to betray him as “a sacrifice” to his previous leader, Macbeth.
3. Macduff passes this stage of the interview by boldly announcing, “I am not treacherous.” Still, Malcolm persists: Men may look as bright as angels on the outside but still harbor secret feelings within.

Why, he asks, did Macduff desert his wife and children? At this point, Macduff nearly fails the test: He cannot believe that Malcolm is so short-sighted not to realize that his interests lie in defending not only his family but the whole nation of Scotland.

• As in Ross’ speech in Act IV, Scene 2, the context of this entire scene has been set in terms of the country as a whole: Macduff explains to Malcolm that “Each new morn,
• New sorrows / Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds / As if it felt with Scotland”(4-7).
• Later, Macduff cries out “O Scotland, Scotland,

O nation miserable!” Macbeth’s motivation in murdering Duncan may have been personal, but its effects have become very much public. Malcolm’s next move is a daring piece of reverse psychology: He claims that as a future king, he himself will be even more malicious and barbarous than Macbeth.

To understand this scene, the audience must be aware from the start that Malcolm is lying when he suggests that he possesses no virtues, no nobility, no honor, and no qualities of kingship. Macduff’s response to this suggestion is at first cautious. His speech beginning with the words “Boundless intemperance in nature is a tyranny,

” has a diplomatic tone. Macduff argues, probably against his better judgment, that certain human sins are forgivable, even in a king. Even avarice, the sinful desire for wealth, is “portable” when balanced against the good qualities of kingship. “But I have none,” replies Malcolm, listing exactly those qualities which he does have and which, of course, Macbeth lacks.

What is Malcolm concerned about

Act 5 Scene 9 – Malcolm is concerned about the safety of Macduff and Young Siward. Ross tells Siward that his son has been killed in battle, but died bravely. Macduff arrives with Macbeth’s severed head. He hails Malcolm the new King of Scotland. Malcolm honours those who have fought alongside him against the tyranny of ‘this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen’.

Young Siward dies with wounds on his front, meaning he faced the battle bravely. Macduff hails Malcolm as the new king. Lady Macbeth committed suicide.

What truth does Malcolm finally reveal about himself to Macduff

What truth does Malcolm finally reveal about himself to Macduff in lines 112-135? Why does he reveal this to Macduff at this point? Cite evidence. He tells Macduff that he made up the horrible traits about himself.