Summary Key Analysis of the Minor Characters in Macbeth
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Course
English
Institution
GCSE
Ensure you have an excellent understanding of the minor characters within Macbeth to make your answers stand out, learn about Ross, Macduff, Malcolm, Lennox and more. Their key quotes, why Shakespeare crafted them the way he did and their key structural moments.
● Binary opposition to Macbeth
● Renaissance man
● Static Character
● Archetype of the avenging hero, not simply out for revenge but with a good
and holy purpose.
“What, all my pretty chickens and their dam. At one fell swoop?”
● Macbeth thinks that masculinity is about ruthlessness + cruelty - Macduff
subverts gender stereotypes - shows that men can have emotions
● an affectionate and loving husband + father as well as a powerful warrior -
everything Macbeth cannot be
● The sense of immense grief foreshadows him avenging this by killing
Macbeth
Key Moments: knocks at the gate of Macbeth's castle in Act II, Scene 3 - allusion to
Christ, who before his final ascension into Heaven, goes down to release the souls
of the damned from hell - cements Macbeth’s fate - Harrowing of Hell
“Macduff cries out, "I have no words; my voice is in my sword."
● In the final combat between hero and anti-hero, Macduff’s wordlessness
contrasts with Macbeth's empty rhetoric
● feminine character - Shakespeare may be suggesting that femininity is a
strength + criticises patriarchy and how it denies women their own nature in
order to acquire power
“new widows howl, new orphans cry”
● Parallelism + zoomorphism - Macduff shows the dangers in Macbeth’s reign -
holistically - Macduff acts for the good of others + his allegiance to Scotland
unlike Macbeth whose allegiance is to himself
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