Essay: Lady Macduff: An Exemplification of a Common Woman and the Foil of Lady Macbeth.

Paste your essay in here.. How would someone feel if their husband fled to another country abandoning them and their son without any warning? In Act IV Scene II of the tragedy Macbeth, Lady Macduff explains her doubts and her negative thoughts about her husband after this just happens. She just does not comprehend why he would do this and what the future is going to withhold. Through this, she exemplifies her femininity and portrayal of a common woman in Shakespeare’s time, thus proving to be Lady Macbeth’s foil. Therefore, in Act IV Scene II of the tragedy Macbeth, Lady Macduff is logical and moral revealed through her contemptuous diction and maternal imagery, to prove she conveys a common woman in that time, and the foil of Lady Macbeth.
First, Lady Macduff is logical and moral through her use of contemptuous diction during her questioning of her husband’s leaving, conveying that she is a common woman at that time and the foil of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macduff, after the leaving of her husband, only had a two questions to ask: what the was and what will happen in the future. She never once asked can we bring him back, where he is, or what is going to happen to him. For example, when Lady Macduff was trying to comprehend why Macduff left, she stated, “ Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes, his mansion, and his titles in a place from whence himself does fly (1).” She is utilizing this scornful diction to repeat the fact that her husband was absurd to leave his power, child, and their house just because it was some danger was approaching. This exemplifies her use of logic and morality because she is asking herself why didn’t her husband use reasoning to leave, opposite of Lady Macbeth. All Lady Macbeth did was steer Macbeth into more danger and into immoral actions that Macbeth would later regret. Another time Lady Macduff proves to be a common woman at the time is when she asserts, “Why then, alas, do I put up that womanly
defense to say I have done no harm” (3). Based off of this claim and the contemptuous diction of “womanly defense” it is inferred that she believes women are powerless and useless against others, making her a common woman at the time that does not have much power and believes in that concept as well. She is also conveyed as the foil of Lady Macbeth in this, as well. She brought up her innocence, to portray the upside down condition of Scotland. However, this condition of Scotland did not come out of blue, it came through the original killing of King Duncan, where Macbeth was pressured by her wife Lady Macbeth. This means Lady Macbeth symbolizes evil and chaos, where Lady Macduff is an ordinary innocent, woman that bases her decision and thoughts off of morals and logic.
In addition, Lady Macduff is logical and moral demonstrated through her utilization of maternal imagery, ultimately exemplifying she is a common woman and the foil of Lady Macduff. When contemplating the reasons for the her husband’s unexpected departure she compared husband abandoning her with many images depicting her as a mother. For instance, when she was revealing the main reason for the unlogical abandonment of her husband she stated, “He love us not; He wants the natural touch; for the poor wren, The most diminutive of birds, will fight, her young ones in her nest, against the owl” (1). Lady Macduff comparing her husband to a weak bird providing loyalty to his young ones, extends that her husband is breaking special family relationships. This conveys her as a common woman of that time, she cannot function without him and leaving her makes her useless and Macduff’s action even more treacherous. This separates her from Lady Macbeth because she actually cares about the morality of this subject, while Lady Macbeth has no filter for morality and has done the most immoral
actions in the past. This also occurs after her son says he will live like a bird when she says, “ Poor bird! Thou ’dst never fear the net nor lime, The pitfall nor the gin ” (9). Even though, she is yelling at her son, she is still thinking logically. She knows that after her husband leaving, there was no possible way her and her son could survive by themselves. Due to her knowing that woman of her time did have much power and acquire that much power. The image this brings is an innocent bird getting eaten by a huge hawk, but trying to be saved by the mother. This proves the huge morals difference between Lady Macduff and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macduff, uses her maternal instincts to think logically and morally, while Lady Macbeth has no moral and logic in her actions.
In conclusion through the use of contemptuous diction and maternal imagery Lady Macbeth is logical and has a great sense of morals, revealing she is a common woman of the time and the foil of Lady Macbeth. Even though Lady Macduff’s part was very limited she set the stage for a common woman and taught information about the society of time, and demonstrated a foil of Lady Macbeth, conveying just how brutal she was.