Macbeth act 4 scene 2?

Question

Ok I have looked everywhere and read the text over tons of times. I am absolutly horrible at inturpreting old english and as ya'll can see I can't spell for crap =D

Does anybody know why Shakespare includes a scene (Act 4 Scene 3) showing the relationship between Lady Macduff and her children?

And

Seeing as how this is the first murder committed on stage what effect does it have on the audience?

Why do you think shakespare deems it necessary to create this effect at this particular point in the play?

Answer 1

Sounds like a homework question to me...go back to studying!

Answer 2

Act 4 Scene 2 Macbeth

Answer 3

Macbeth Act 4 Scene 2

Answer 4

In order for a character's death to have emotional impact, you need the audience to be emotionally or intellectually invested in the characters.

By showing a simple scene of a mother and son interacting, we get to know the characters a bit - and get to see the simple love they have for each other. When they are killed moments later, it is a much more horrible death than any of the others that came before it.

To some extent, the deaths of Duncan and Banquo we can (if not forgive) understand since they were clear obstacles to Macbeth's keeping the throne. Furthermore, both of those characters were soldiers and men of the period - characters that often met violent ends.

The murders of Lady Macduff and her child are much less forgivable since neither character is an impediment to Macbeth's rule and since neither is, at the moment, the sort of person that one would expect to die a violent death.

Dramatically, this is the point where Macbeth slides from empathetic anti-hero to villain. It is essential that we see the deaths of these characters so that we can't abstract them away or forgive them. Furthermore, it makes the audience side entirely with Macduff, a clearly aggreived party whom we have not seen so much up to this point in the play, in the final battle.

Answer 5

it would be helpful if you actually wrote out act 4 scene 2, i recall reading macbeth but cant really recall all the acts and scene numbers

Answer 6

there is no clear reason except that it would resolve any concern that macduff had about split loyalties