Acts 3-4: Apparitions & Massacre
Macbeth Returns to the Witches (Act 4, Scene 1)
By Act 4, Macbeth actively seeks out the witches rather than encountering them by chance. This reversal is structurally significant: in Act 1, the witches found Macbeth; now he comes to them willingly. He demands answers: 'I conjure you, by that which you profess.' The imperative verb 'conjure' shows his desperation and his willingness to engage with the supernatural on his own terms. He has moved from being tempted by evil to embracing it.
The witches summon three apparitions. The first, an armed head, warns: 'Beware Macduff.' The second, a bloody child, declares: 'none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.' The third, a crowned child holding a tree, promises: 'Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him.' These prophecies are classically equivocal — they sound reassuring but contain loopholes that Macbeth fails to recognise.
The three apparitions give prophecies that Macbeth interprets as guarantees of safety: no one 'of woman born' can kill him, and he is safe until Birnam Wood moves. But Macduff was born by Caesarean section ('untimely ripped'), and Malcolm's army carries branches from Birnam Wood as camouflage. The witches' equivocation destroys Macbeth.
The Show of Kings
After the three apparitions, Macbeth demands to know whether Banquo's descendants will reign. The witches show him a procession of eight kings, all descended from Banquo, with the last holding a mirror that reflects many more. This is a direct reference to James I, who was believed to be descended from Banquo and who ruled over both England and Scotland. The mirror symbolically extends the line into Shakespeare's own time, flattering the king in the audience.
Macbeth's response is despair: 'What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?' Despite all his murders, he cannot alter the prophecy. Banquo's line will triumph. This moment reinforces the play's message that attempting to overthrow the divinely ordained order is futile — a message designed to reassure James I and his court.
The first apparition warned 'Beware Macduff,' and Macbeth responds with his most brutal act yet: ordering the murder of Macduff's wife and children. This is different from Duncan's murder (motivated by ambition) and Banquo's (motivated by paranoia). The massacre of innocents is pure tyranny — killing not for strategic gain but out of vindictive rage.
Shakespeare makes the scene emotionally devastating by showing Lady Macduff and her son in a tender domestic exchange before the murderers arrive. The boy's defiance — 'He has killed me, mother: run away, I pray you!' — highlights the horror of murdering children. For a Jacobean audience, this scene would cement Macbeth as a tyrant beyond redemption, violating every code of honour, hospitality, and kingship.
Malcolm and Macduff in England (Act 4, Scene 3)
Act 4, Scene 3 is the longest scene in the play. In England, Malcolm tests Macduff's loyalty by pretending to be an even worse king than Macbeth — claiming he is lustful, greedy, and lacking every kingly virtue. When Macduff despairs ('O Scotland, Scotland!'), Malcolm reveals the test was a lie: he is actually virtuous. This scene establishes Malcolm as the rightful, legitimate king — a sharp contrast with the tyrant Macbeth.
The scene also introduces the concept of the king's healing touch. Edward the Confessor of England has the power to cure the sick through touch — a symbol of legitimate, God-given kingship. This directly contrasts with Macbeth, whose rule has made Scotland itself sick. Ross tells Macduff: 'Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes / Savagely slaughtered.' Macduff's grief is raw: 'He has no children.' His pain motivates the final assault on Macbeth.
Macduff's line 'He has no children' is ambiguous and often debated. It could mean: Macbeth has no children, so Macduff cannot take equivalent revenge; or Malcolm has no children, so he cannot understand a parent's grief. Either reading intensifies the emotional impact. Malcolm's advice to 'Dispute it like a man' echoes the play's recurring association of masculinity with emotional suppression, but Macduff's reply is revolutionary: 'I shall do so; / But I must also feel it as a man.' He redefines masculinity to include emotional honesty — a direct contrast with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, who suppress feeling and are destroyed by it.
This is a key moment for the OCR exam. Shakespeare uses Macduff to present an alternative model of manhood that combines courage with compassion. When Macduff says 'I must also feel it as a man,' he challenges the toxic version of masculinity that has driven the Macbeths' downfall.
Macbeth's violence escalates across the play: Duncan's murder (reluctant, politically motivated), Banquo's murder (paranoid, independently planned), Macduff's family (vindictive tyranny against innocents). Each stage shows further moral deterioration and isolation from human feeling.