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Compare And Contrast Macduff And Macbeth

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Perhaps on of Shakespeare’s most well-known works would be Macbeth. This play also happens to be one of the shortest of his as well. The play is about the life of Macbeth, a Scottish noble, who under the manipulation of three prophesizing witches becomes king himself. Macbeth only achieves the kingship by destroying the good man he once was. One of the many men that Macbeth comes in contact with, Macduff is quite the opposite of Macbeth. He stays true to Scotland even though Macbeth does not. Shakespeare deliberately contrasts Macduff and Macbeth through the use of juxtaposition and by revealing the true characters of each of the men. Macduff is a Scottish nobleman and the Thane of Fife. Macduff’s character is first revealed in Act II after the murder of King Duncan by Macbeth. Macduff is shown to be a true son of Scotland due to him being truly distraught by the death of Duncan. “O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart Cannot conceive nor name thee.” (2.3, 57-58) Macduff was the first to discover Duncan’s dead body and he was truly horrified by what he saw. He knew what it meant for his homeland, they had lost a great and merciful king. This shows that Macduff is extremely loyal to his homeland and realizes when a good man has been lost. When all the other noblemen were rushing to find a new king and rush Macbeth into kingship, Macduff was the only one to question about what truly happened. While …show more content…

Macduff is presented and a good person who has the love of his country and family in mind at all times while Macbeth on the other hand is presented as an evil man with a lust for power. These two characters are juxtaposition due to them being complete opposites of each other. The ever changing character of Macbeth and how the characters around him interact with him are what make Macbeth on of Shakespeare’s greatest

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