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Pathos In Macbeth

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Throughout Act IV of Macbeth, William Shakespeare expresses Aristotles’s pathos. Pathos is a philosophy that evokes pity. In The Tragedy of Macbeth; Macduff and Lady Macduff are written to evoke sympathy from the audience. Shakespeare includes this scene full of pity, for he wants to give the characters emotion and Shakespeare wants to show the audience that the characters have a heart. Furthermore, In Scene II, Shakespeare uses pathos on Macduff. Macduff is sympathized in the play, for his innocent children and his beloved wife are brutally murdered. “Thou liest, thou shag-eared villain!/ What, you egg?/Young fry of treachery!/ He has killed/ me, mother./ Run away, I pray you.” (Macbeth, IV. II. ll. 94-98). The poor man is already in distress trying to gather an army in England, and now Macduff has learned that his family is murdered. He states, “All my pretty ones?/ Did you say “all”? O hell-kite! All?” (Macbeth, IV. III. ll. 255-256). Besides being the Thane of Fife, Macduff's’ one true love and joy is his family and now he has nothing. In this scene Malcolm tells Macduff to “dispute it like a man” (Macbeth, IV. III. I. 259) which Macduff replies, “I shall do so,/ But I …show more content…

Shakespeare expresses the philosophy of pathos through Macduff and Lady Macduff. Throughout Act IV of The Tragedy of Macbeth, Macduff is pitied by the readers over the loss of his family. Lady Macduff is sympathized by the audience, for her husband left his children and wife to go to England. The dramatic irony of the audience have knowledge that the Macduff family was going to be massacred allows the audience to pity Lady Macduff. In conclusion, Shakespeare uses pathos, the philosophy of evoking emotions such as pity from the audience, throughout Act IV of the play so that the audience can pity Macduff and Lady

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