Act IV Summaries

Summaries for Act 4
Scene 1
The witches prepare to meet with Macbeth. They cook up a disgusting potion while chanting: “double, double toil and trouble,/ Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”
Macbeth enters the scene demanding answers.

The witches introduce three apparitions:
1) an armed Head: warning him to beware of Macduff.
2) A bloody child: telling him that nobody born from woman shall harm Macbeth.
3) A Child wearing a crown, with a tree in his hand: telling him that nothing will happen to Macbeth until the Great Birnam Woods arrives at Dunsinane hill.

A vision of eight kings and Banquo’s ghost are also shown to Macbeth. Macbeth gets really upset and yells at the spirit of Banquo. The vision disappears and the witches dance and then vanish.

At this point Lennox enters and Macbeth asks him if he saw the witches. He said no. He then informs Macbeth that Macduff has fled for England. Macbeth knows that Macduff is anticipating the horror that will continue to come with his rule. He calls him a traitor and vows that from that point on :”the very firstlings of my heart shall be/the firstlings of my hand.” In other words, whatever his heart tells him to do, he is going to follow through with.

Scene 2
In this scene Ross and Lady Macduff are having a conversation about how upset she is that Macduff has left her to go and see Malcom. She feels like he should have stayed with her and the family. Ross comforts her.
After Ross leaves, Lady Macbeth and her son horse around a bit.
A messenger arrives, he blesses her and warns her that “some danger does approach”. She answers by asking where she would even go, and that she hasn’t done anything wrong.
Murderers arrive killing Lady Macduff and her son.

Scene 3
Malcolm and Macduff have a meeting. Macduff tries to convince Malcolm that they need to defend Scotland from Macbeth’s tyranny.
Malcolm says that he doesn’t believe him and that he thinks he is going to betray him. He proceeds to test Macduff’s loyalty by telling him all the horrible things that he does. Malcolm even warns him that he would “pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,/uproar the universal peace, confound/ All unity on hearth”

Macduff then proceeds to try and convince Malcolm that he would rather anyone else in the world lead Scotland than Macbeth.
Finally Malcolm becomes convinced that Macduff is a good man and is telling the truth. He tells him that he was just testing him the whole time.
Ross enters the scene revealing that Macduff’s wife and son have been slaughtered by Macbeth’s murderers. The whole group becomes enraged and they decide it is time to take down Macbeth.