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1. 
   mshurn Teacher
   College - Freshman

   After Macbeth assumes the throne, he tightens his grip on Scotland and acts to destroy opposition to his rule. Malcolm and Donalbain cannot return home until they come back with an army to defeat the tyrant. Banquo has been murdered at Macbeth's order, and his son Fleance was marked to die, as well, although he managed to escape. In an act of complete depravity, Macbeth ordered the slaughter of Macduff's entire family--wife and children--along with every person who made up Macduff's household. Even before he learned of the massacre of his family and servants, Macduff knew Macbeth for the monster he was:

   Not in the legions

   Of horrid hell can come a devil more damned

   In evils to top Macbeth.

   Living under Macbeth's tyranny, Scotland's only hope lies in Malcolm's attempts to gain the help of the English in overthrowing Macbeth. Malcolm was in England, living in the English court, trying to enlist the aid of Edward the Confessor, King of England. In discussing Malcom's efforts, Lennox expressed the importance of his succeeding:

   Some holy angel

   Fly to the court of England and unfold

   His message ere he come, that a swift blessing

   May soon return to this our suffering country

   Under a hand accursed!

   When Malcom does raise the English army, which unites with the Scots who have rebelled against Macbeth, Macbeth is defeated and killed in battle. Malcolm regains the throne that is rightfully his, and Scotland's nightmare ends.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/macbeth-salem/macbeth

   http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/macbeth-character-analysis

   http://www.enotes.com/macbeth/summary

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   Posted by mshurn on Friday June 12, 2009 at 1:01 AM
   
   

2. 
   kc4u Teacher
   College - Senior

   After the murder of king Duncan & the escape of Malcolm and Donalbain, Macbeth assumes kingship. Driven by a sense of insecurity and fear, Macbeth appoints murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance. Banquo is put to death but Fleance escapes. In act 3 sc.6,'another Lord' first refers to Macbeth as 'tyrant' and confides to Lennox how Scotland under Macbeth's tyrannical rule has become a seat of persecution and terror in sharp contrast to England where Macduff has gone to seek the support of 'the holy king':

   "........................................Thither Macduff

   Is gone to pray the holy king, upon his aid

   To wake Northumberland and warlike Seward:

   That by the help of these, with him above

   To ratify the work, we may again

   Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,

   Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,

   Do faithful homage and receive honours:

   All which we pine for now."

   In act 4 sc.2, Ross tries to argue in support of Macduff's passage to England with reference to the conditions in Scotland under Macbeth's despotic rule:

   " But cruel are the times, when we are traitors

   And do not know ourselves, when we hold rumour

   From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,

   But float upon a wild and violent sea

   Each way and move."

   But perhaps the most telling comment on the miserable conditions in Scotland in the post-Duncan era comes from Macduff in act 4 sc.3:

   " .................................Each new morn

   New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
   

   Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds

   As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out

   Like syllable of dolour."

    

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   Posted by kc4u on Friday June 12, 2009 at 12:23 PM