Act 4 of Macbeth is where Macbeth becomes a tyrant in full: armed with prophecies that seem to make him safe, he orders the murder of Macduff’s wife and children, and in doing so creates the man who will kill him.
This summary takes Act 4 scene by scene, from the witches’ cauldron to Macduff’s vow of revenge. Each scene covers what happens, the key lines, and why it matters for the rest of the play. For the whole story, see our full guide to Macbeth. For what came before, see our Act 3 summary, and for everyone who appears here, see our guide to the Macbeth characters.
At a Glance
Here is Act 4 of Macbeth in brief.
Act 4, Scene 1: The Apparitions
In a dark cave, the three witches circle a boiling cauldron and drop in their ingredients.
“Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn and cauldron bubble,” they chant, adding pieces of animals and worse. Hecate appears briefly to praise their work. Then one of the witches senses who is coming: “By the pricking of my thumbs, / Something wicked this way comes.” It is Macbeth. He no longer waits to be told his fortune; he demands it, even if the whole world must be destroyed to answer him. Our guide to what “Double, Double Toil and Trouble” means reads the chant in detail.
The witches call up three apparitions. The first, an armed head, warns him: “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff; / Beware the thane of Fife.” The second, a bloody child, gives him what seems like total protection: “Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth.” The third, a child wearing a crown and holding a tree, promises that “Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until / Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill / Shall come against him.” A forest cannot move, so Macbeth concludes he is safe. Still, he will kill Macduff anyway: “But yet I’ll make assurance double sure.”
He insists on one more answer: will Banquo’s descendants ever reign? The witches show him a procession of eight kings, the last holding a mirror, with Banquo’s ghost following them: Banquo’s line will reign after all. Then the witches vanish. Lennox enters with news: Macduff has fled to England. Macbeth decides that from now on he will act the moment he thinks: “The very firstlings of my heart shall be / The firstlings of my hand.” Since Macduff is out of reach, he will attack Macduff’s castle and kill his wife, his children, and anyone of his blood.
Act 4, Scene 2: Macduff’s Castle
At Macduff’s castle in Fife, his wife cannot understand why he has left them.
Ross has come to comfort her, but Lady Macduff is bitter. Her husband fled and left his wife and children behind: “He loves us not; / He wants the natural touch.” Even the tiny wren, she says, will fight an owl to protect her young. Ross defends Macduff as “noble, wise, judicious,” says the times are too dangerous to speak plainly, and leaves.
Lady Macduff tells her young son that his father is a traitor, and the boy answers her with a child’s quick, sharp logic. A messenger rushes in to warn her to flee with her children, then leaves in fear. Before she can go, the murderers arrive. When one of them calls Macduff a traitor, the boy calls him a liar and a villain. The murderer stabs him: “What, you egg! / Young fry of treachery!” The dying boy tells his mother to run. She flees, crying “Murder!”, with the murderers chasing her.
Act 4, Scene 3: Malcolm, Macduff, and the News
The longest scene in the act takes place at the English court, where Macduff has found Malcolm.
Macduff urges Malcolm to return and fight for Scotland. Malcolm is cautious. Macbeth has sent agents before to trick him, and Macduff left his family behind, which seems suspicious. So Malcolm tests him. He claims he would be a worse king than Macbeth: endlessly lustful, greedy enough to seize nobles’ lands, and without a single kingly virtue. At first Macduff tries to make allowances. Finally he despairs: “Fit to govern! / No, not to live. O nation miserable,” and “O Scotland, Scotland!” He prepares to leave.
That is the answer Malcolm wanted. Macduff’s grief for his country proves his loyalty, and Malcolm takes back everything he said: “My first false speaking / Was this upon myself.” He reveals that the English have given them old Siward and ten thousand soldiers. A doctor mentions that the saintly English king heals the sick with his touch, a sign of true kingship that sets off Macbeth’s tyranny.
Ross arrives from Scotland. Asked about Macduff’s family, he first says they are well. Then he tells the truth: “Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes / Savagely slaughter’d.” Macduff can barely take it in: “He has no children. All my pretty ones? / Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?” Malcolm urges him, “Dispute it like a man.” Macduff answers, “I shall do so; / But I must also feel it as a man.” He blames himself; they were killed because of him. Malcolm tells him to let grief sharpen his sword, and Macduff asks only to meet Macbeth face to face. The army prepares to march.
A Closer Reading: What Makes a Man
Macduff’s answer to Malcolm, “I must also feel it as a man,” is the play’s reply to a question Lady Macbeth asked in Act 1.
From the start, Macbeth argues over what it means to be a man. When her husband backed away from the murder, Lady Macbeth told him, “When you durst do it, then you were a man.” At the banquet, when he saw Banquo’s ghost, she demanded, “Are you a man?” In her definition, a man is someone who can kill without flinching, and feeling is weakness. The second apparition in this act repeats the idea, telling Macbeth to be “bloody, bold, and resolute” and to “laugh to scorn / The power of man.” Macbeth takes the advice and acts on it at once, ordering the murder of a woman and her children.
Scene 3 offers the opposite definition. Malcolm, still thinking like a soldier, tells Macduff to “Dispute it like a man,” meaning fight back and don’t weep. Macduff agrees he will fight, “But I must also feel it as a man.” For him, grief is not a failure of manhood but part of it. A man who could hear that his children were murdered and feel nothing would not be a man at all.
That is why Macduff, not Macbeth, is the one the prophecies point to. Macbeth has trained himself to stop feeling, and by Act 5 he will have almost no feeling left. Macduff arrives at the final battle carrying exactly what Macbeth has cut away: love and grief, turned into purpose. “He has no children,” Macduff says, whether he means Macbeth, who cannot be paid back in kind, or Malcolm, who cannot understand. Either way, the man who can still feel will be the one who ends the play. Our guide to the themes in Macbeth traces manhood and masculinity through the whole play.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Act 4 of Macbeth, answered briefly.
What Happens in Act 4 of Macbeth?
Macbeth visits the witches, who show him apparitions that seem to promise he is safe. Learning that Macduff has fled to England, Macbeth has Macduff’s wife and children murdered. In England, Malcolm tests Macduff’s loyalty, and Macduff learns of his family’s deaths and vows revenge.
What Are the Three Apparitions in Macbeth?
An armed head, which warns him to beware Macduff; a bloody child, which says no man “of woman born” can harm him; and a crowned child holding a tree, which says he will not be defeated until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane.
Why Does Macbeth Kill Macduff’s Family?
Macduff has fled to England, out of Macbeth’s reach, after the first apparition warned Macbeth against him. Macbeth strikes at the family he left behind, acting immediately on his new rule to do whatever he thinks the moment he thinks it.
Why Does Malcolm Test Macduff?
Macbeth has tried to trap Malcolm before, and Macduff’s decision to leave his family behind makes Malcolm suspicious. By pretending to be wicked, Malcolm checks whether Macduff cares about Scotland or only about power. Macduff’s despair proves his loyalty.
What Does “He Has No Children” Mean?
Macduff says it on hearing that his family is dead. It can refer to Macbeth, who has no children for Macduff to take revenge on, or to Malcolm, who is urging him to be manly and cannot understand a father’s grief. Readers have argued for both.
Related Reading
Three pages that take Macbeth further.