Day: December 16, 2014

In Macduff’s castle in Fife, Lady Macduff comforts and is comforted by her young son, who displays a courage beyond his years when confronted with the possibility that his father has turned traitor. Although warned by the Thane of Ross to escape before it is too late, Lady Macduff is encountered by Macbeth’s henchmen, who brutally kill first her child and (as the audience learns in the following scene) her.

In this scene Macbeth returns to the weird sisters and boldly demands to be shown a series of apparitions that tell his future. The first apparition is the disembodied head of a fighter, who seems to warn Macbeth of a bloody revenge at the hands of Macduff. The second is a blood coverd child who comforts Macbeth with the news he cannot be killed by any man “of woman born.” The third is a child wearing a crown, who promises that Macbeth cannot lose in battle until Birnam wood physically moves towards his stronghold in Dunsinane.