Act IV: the female role

Lady Macduff is a fictional character from Shakespeare's Macbeth. She is the wife of Macduff and the mother of Macduff's Son.

She appears in the play in act IV, scene II. In this scene she is talking to Ross, one of the Thanes. The Lady is furious because her husband has left the country without talking something to his family. Sadly, when she was joking with her son, a messenger enters and tells Lady Macduff that dangers is approaching. Later three murderers enter asking her where her husband is. She doesn’t know it and, when they respond by calling Macduff a traitor, the boy defends his father. So the murderers kill him and her mother too.

Lady Macduff’s speech following the arrival of the messenger is really the only place in the entire play where we learn about her true character. In this short passage we see that she is shy, completely guileless, well intentioned and too trusting of those around her. Lady Macduff represents all the good people slaughtered by Macbeth. She loves her family, and is distressed at her husband's departure.

She is the opposite of Lady Macbeth but there is one trait in common with her: her deep loyalty to her husband. She doesn’t really believe Macduff is a traitor: she loves him. She’s only angry because she doesn’t know where her husband is and because he hasn’t say nothing to his family.

In my opinion Lady Macduff is a innocent victim. Her character is there to show how Macbeth has no piety for anybody and he doesn’t mind murdering innocent women and children. Her death has Macduff’s feeling transformed into anger and thirst of revenge against Macbeth: that’s why a further function of lady Macduff’s death could be the one of giving a pretext to her husband acts.