Malcolm

Who He Is

Eldest son of Duncan, named Prince of Cumberland and heir to the throne. He flees to England, while his brother Donalbain goes to Ireland, when their father is murdered and suspicion falls on both of them, and he returns as the commander of the army that overthrows Macbeth. He is the king the play hands the crown to at the end, and what sets him apart from his father is distrust: Malcolm accepts an ally only after testing him.

Trajectory

In Scene 2 of Act I, in the camp near Forres, he presents his father with the wounded Captain who reports the battle. In Scene 4 of Act I, he tells Duncan that the former Cawdor died repentant, and he is named Prince of Cumberland, a title that Macbeth then sees as a step on his path.

In Scene 3 of Act II, on learning of his father's death, he decides with Donalbain to flee, trusting no one: he says that showing a grief one does not feel is easy for a false man, and he sets off for England, while Donalbain goes to Ireland. In Scene 4 of Act II, Macduff tells that the chamberlains were held to have been bribed, and that the princes' flight raises suspicion against them.

In Scene 6 of Act III, a lord tells Lennox that Macduff went to England to ask King Edward for support for Malcolm. In Scene 3 of Act IV, at the English court, Malcolm and Macduff lament Scotland. Distrustful, Malcolm pretends to be ruled by lust and greed, and reveals the lie only when Macduff condemns him with indignation.

The two agree to make war with Siward's ten thousand men. When Ross tells Macduff that his family has been killed, Malcolm asks that the grief turn into anger.

In Scene 4 of Act V, before Birnam, he orders each soldier to cut a branch and carry it in front of him, to hide the number of the troop.

In Scene 6 of Act V, he orders the branches dropped and gives the orders of attack, with Siward and his son at the front. In Scene 7 of Act V, after the duel, Macduff hails him as king, he gives the barons the first titles of Earl that Scotland names, promises to call back the exiles who fled the tyranny, and invites everyone to the coronation at Scone.

Themes Embodied

The flight of Malcolm and Donalbain in Scene 3 of Act II helps Macbeth's cause: by vanishing, the princes receive the suspicion that the couple planted on the chamberlains. The same gesture, flight, is read as guilt when it is theirs, and as prudence, in Scene 2 of Act IV, when it is Macduff's.

In Scene 3 of Act IV, Malcolm describes himself as worse than Macbeth to see how Macduff reacts, and the scene advances only when Macduff answers with indignation. It ends when Ross turns suspicion into grief by telling what happened in Fife.

Malcolm is the opposite of Duncan. The father judges by the face and showers Macbeth with thanks in Scene 4 of Act I, and the son, having seen what trust cost, gives it only to those who pass a test. He recovers Power by means Macbeth did not foresee, the branches of Birnam, and the play's Violence ends in the hands of a cautious heir, who has his troop hide its numbers before attacking.

In the closing speech, Malcolm mentions the Queen only in passing, as one who, it is believed, took her own life. The restoration he promises, the new titles, the return of the exiles, undoes a tyranny held up by obedience out of fear, but the play gives him no word about the one consumed by the crime that set all of this in motion.

Relationships

• Duncan: the father who names him heir in Scene 4 of Act I, and whose death makes him flee in Scene 3 of Act II.
• Macbeth: the usurper who sees him as an obstacle, and whom he, king in the end, succeeds.
• Macduff: the baron who joins him in England, whom he tests in Scene 3 of Act IV, and who hails him as king in Scene 7 of Act V.
• Banquo: the captain who, in Scene 3 of Act II, proposes investigating the crime while he decides to flee.
• Lady Macbeth: the queen he mentions only in passing in Scene 7 of Act V.