Macbeth Group
Question:
sancho
Student
College - Senior
In Act 4, Scene iii of 'Macbeth', what news does Ross deliver to Malcolm and Macduff?
Answers:
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Posted by dymatsuoka on Friday June 27, 2008 at 8:34 PM
Ross tells Malcolm and Macduff that Scotland is in chaos. He describes the situation in harrowing detail, saying that "sighs and groans and shrieks...rend the air...violent sorrow seems a modern ecstasy...good men's lives expire before the flowers in their caps" (IV, iii, 169-173). Ross urges Malcolm, whose "eye in Scotland would create soldiers, make our women fight, to doff their dire distresses" (IV, iii, 187-189) to come quickly to the motherland's aid and fight the tyrant Macbeth.
Ross is reluctant to relate the worst of the news, however, until he is pressed by Macduff. He tells Macduff, "your castle is surpirsed, your wife and babes savagely slaughtered" (IV, iii, 205-206). Macduff's entire family has been wiped out in a most heinous manner, and Macduff, devastated, vows to have his revenge against Macbeth.
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Posted by suman1983 on Friday June 27, 2008 at 10:09 PM
It should also be noted in this regard that Rosse’s arrival is an extremely significant point in this Shakespearean tragedy. First of all, it is Rosse who first delivers the news of Macduff’s loss to Macduff. Secondly, his arrival turns the play into a new direction. Before his arrival Macduff has been continuously trying to persuade Malcolm to confront Macbeth. Rosse’s news turns out as an invigorating power which directly cheers Malcolm to destroy Macbeth: “Be comforted : / Let’s make us med’cines of our great revenge, / To cure this deadly grief.” (lines 213-215).
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