Lady Macbeth Theme Essay

In Macbeth Act 4 Scene 2 Shakespeare shows three themes within this act with Lady Macduff and Ross her son. (Miller)Miller states about this scene that it is shakespeare's way of reflecting back on the play so far “Lady Macduff's much expanded role and the death she suffers, in contrast to her counterpart in Shakespeare's Macbeth”.The first theme that is showed is flying and it is showed in the first line of the scene by Lady Macduff with her talking to the messenger Ross when he arrives. In the following lines Lady Macduff expresses the second theme which is cowardice when she is talking to Ross the messenger she talks about how Macduff abandoning her and her son, she talks to Ross she calls Macduff a traitor. One of the last themes showed

In the first line Lady Macduff says “ what had he done, to make him fly the land?” in other words what was he thinking when he left the castle. While she is talking to Mcduff she says that he ran away and that makes him a traitor. Lady Macduff does not revisit the theme again until she is speaking to the messenger that arrives that tells her to leave and Lady Macduff says “ whither should I fly?” Lady Macduff asks where she should go she has nothing to fear because she has done nothing wrong. Then enter the murders that kill Lady Macduff and Ross her son. The theme of flying is shown throughout the play when Banquo tells his son Fleance to run when Macbeth's cutthroats have got him.(Alfar) There is a statement made by Alfar about lady Macduff and how Shakespeare makes women strong “Alfar interrogate what early modern culture regarded as evil, she also argues that the characters regarded as evil women do little more than what is done by other characters, male and female, regarded as admirable”. For Lady Macduff the flying represents her husband first being too much of a coward to protect her and her son and at the end of the scene when the murders kill her son and Ross tells her to run away she sees it as