Macbeth, Act IV, Scene 3 is an often overlooked but ultimately revealing scene. Malcolm, the rightful heir to the throne, is in exile talking with Macduff, a warrior who is at least Macbeth's equal. Macbeth has killed both Malcolm's father and Macduff son. So we have a fatherless child and a childless father coming together to defeat the murderous usurper.
Indeed, Macbeth seems obsessed with dual murders of fathers and sons. He always seems to succeed in killing one while the other survives. Duncan dies, but Malcolm and Donalbain escape. Banquo dies, but Fleance escapes. And Macduff is not home when his assassins arrive, but his young son is brutally butchered.
The witches plant the seeds of obsession by telling Macbeth he will be king, but not a father of kings; that honor will go instead to good father Banquo.
Back to Malcolm and Macduff. In order to test Macduff's loyalty, Malcolm tries to present himself as unworthy and unfit to be king. The older Macduff proves he is loyal to Scotland and honest with Malcolm, and this allows the puer to reveal his true virtue.
It is then that Macduff discovers his own son and wife have been killed. As Macduff wails, Malcolm tries to redirect his anger toward battle with Macbeth, but the older wiser Macduff must first express his feelings. In this, he teaches the younger man how to grieve, which we have yet to see Malcolm do for his father.
One can imagine the immediate bond that might take place between two such men, united by grief and loss.
From a Jungian perspective, Malcolm and Macduff seem to be the parts of Macbeth that he cut off from himself when he commit his heinous crime. Macbeth could not be a loyal son and so can never be a wise old man. He is cut off from his innocence and his wisdom. He has no progeny and no creativity. His fate is destruction.
So perhaps Macbeth, Macduff, and Malcolm can be viewed as aspects of the same man. Is Shakespeare's message cautionary, as if to say "here is what happens when you neglect your inner child and inner old man"? Or is his message darkly optimistic, as in "even your choice to walk the path of ego and self-destruction can lead to enlightenment and psychic integration"?
In the end, it is fitting that Macbeth must be beheaded. If they went after his balls, I doubt they'd find any.
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Interesting post. Perhaps the hero's pathway is about revenge not grief and their age difference shows in that scene. I am struck by how MacBeth owns his act and takes in its darkness and aftermath whereas Lady tries to move on and not deal with it. MacBeth takes responsibility for his actions and though Lady dirties herself by placing the knives back at the scene she really does not take ownership. She spurs him on as if its her balls needing to be found. MacBeth simply listened to too many women and destroyed his own masculinity rather than reclaiming it as Lady MacBeth predicted. Never listen to a woman about your own masculinity, it will always be a feminine version and not have the glue required for staying power.
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