Question

How does the murder of Macduff's son highlight the cruelty of Macbeth's kingdom?

Answer 1

Macduff's son is a character in William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth(1606). His name and age are not established in the text, however he is estimated to be 7–10 years of age, and is often named as Andrew, for ease. He follows Shakespeare's typical child character; cute and clever. While Lady Macduff and her children are mentioned in Holinshed's Chronicles as the innocent victims of Macbeth's cruelty, Shakespeare is completely responsible for developing Macduff's son as a character.

The boy appears in only one scene (4.2), in which he briefly banters with his mother and is then murdered by Macbeth's thugs. The scene's purpose is twofold: it provides Shakespeare's audience with a thrillingly horrific moment, and it underscores the depravity into which Macbeth has fallen. The brutal scene has often been cut in modern performance.

Andrew is viewed as a symbol of the youthful innocence Macbeth hates and fears, and the scene has been compared by one critic to the biblical Massacre of the Innocents. He is described as an "egg" by his murderer, further emphasising on his youth before his imminent death.

Role in the play

In 4.2, Lady Macduff bewails her husband's desertion of home and family, then falsely tells her son that his father is dead. The boy does not believe her and says that if his father were really dead, she'd cry for him, and if she didn't then it would "be a good sign that I should quickly have a new father." Macbeth's henchmen arrive, and, when they declare Macduff a traitor, the boy leaps forward to defend his absent father. One of the henchme