Taylor Svete

British Literature/ Mrs. Smith

Macbeth quote responses Act IV

10/26/09

“His flight was madness. When our actions do not,/ Our fears make us traitors.”

(Scene ii, lines 3-4)

Lady Macduff is mad at her husband because she feels that he has abandoned them and is

a traitor. She, of course, does not know the real reason for his flight though, if she did she might

think of him less as a traitor. I think that although he was being loyal to his country, he was in a

way, a traitor to his family. He chose to put his country before his family. This is the opposite of

what Macbeth did, except his way of putting his family first was evil while Macduff is trying to

work for a greater good.

“I am in this earthly world, where to do harm/ Is often laudable, to do good sometime/

Accounted dangerous folly.”

(Scene ii, lines 73-75)

Lady Macduff is confused as to why the messenger is warning her of harm to come when

she has done nothing to deserve to be hurt, but then she remembers that to do good is often

punished while doing something bad is sometimes rewarded. This ties in the quote from the very

beginning of this play: “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” (Act I, scene I, line 10). In this world,

anything good can be perceived as bad and vice versa.

 “Bestride our down-fall’n birthdom”

(Scene iii, line 4)

This is one of the few shows of loyalty in this play. Macduff is determined to stay loyal

to his country and stand protectively over his native land, even while Malcom just wants to sit

and cry about it. Macduff will not betray his own country for personal gain like Macbeth did nor

will he stand by as his land falls to shambles. Macbeth has ruined his country through treachery

and ambition, even though he once was trusted, initial impressions can be deceiving because

although Macbeth seemed to be good, honest, and noble at first, he is too controlled by ambition

and greed. It is shown that Malcom thinks this when he says “This tyrant, whose sole name

blisters our tongues,/ Was once thought to be honest:” (lines 12-13)