Macbeth Group

Question:

mahkai3
mahkai3
Student
College - Sophomore

After learning of his family's fate, what does Macduff vow to do?

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Posted by mahkai3 on Sunday March 22, 2009 at 9:16 PM and tagged with act four, children, family, fate, macbeth, macduff, shakespeare, vow.

Answers:


  1. robertwilliam

    Macduff has just learned that Macbeth has had his wife and all of his children murdered. He has to, he tells Macolm, "feel it as a man", and he then makes the following vow:

    But, gentle heavens,
    Cut short all intermission; front to front
    Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;
    Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
    Heaven forgive him too!

    Macduff ask the heavens to cut out any gap or interval of time between NOW and the time he gets to see Macbeth (the "fiend of Scotland") face to face. If he escapes Macduff's sword, Macduff says, let heaven forgive him his sins. But, as we find out in the play's penultimate scene, Macduff's sword is not for Macbeth to escape: it kills him and cuts off his head.

    Hope it helps!

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/macbeth-text/act-iv-scene-iii?start=2

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    Posted by robertwilliam on Monday March 23, 2009 at 5:16 AM