Macduff Quotes

Tyrant, show thy face!
If thou be’st slain and with no stroke of mine,
My wife and children’s ghosts will haunt me still.
I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
Are hired to bear their staves: either thou, Macbeth,
Or else my sword with an unbatter’d edge
I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
By this great clatter, one of greatest note
Seems bruited. Let me find him, fortune!
And more I beg not.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 7. Macduff enters the battlefield determined to have revenge for the murder of his wife and children. Macduff is not fighting to acquire power, his sole ambition is to kill Macbeth. He shouts a challenge to the murderer of his family to reveal himself and calls on Fortune to help him find him.

I have no words:
My voice is in my sword: thou bloodier villain
Than terms can give thee out!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8. When Macduff confronts the murderer of his family Macbeth on the battlefield, he shows himself to be a man of action rather than words. We see an example of personification, as Macduff vows to let his sword do his speaking for him. Branding Macbeth the very worst kind of evil blood-soaked villain, the stage is set for the play’s final battle between good and evil.

Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripp’d.

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8. In this final scene, we learn from Macduff that the Witches’ prophecy that no one born of woman could hurt Macbeth was correct. Macduff was born through Caesarean section and so is a threat to the usurper king. Macbeth’s fate is sealed. Macduff uses verbal irony as he mockingly refers to the Witches that Macbeth has served as “angels.”

Behold, where stands
The usurper’s cursed head: the time is free:
I see thee compass’d with thy kingdom’s pearl,
That speak my salutation in their minds;
Whose voices I desire aloud with mine:
Hail, King of Scotland!

– William Shakespeare

Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 8. After the battle Macduff hails Malcolm as the new King of Scotland. Holding Macbeth’s severed head he announces that the usurper’s reign of terror is over – “the time is free” – an example of personification. Macduff uses the metaphor of a pearl to describe the Scottish nobility surrounding Malcolm.
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