Ross attempts to comfort her, though he offers little consolation and Lady Macduff responds with sharp retorts that betray her anger toward her husband.

This domesticity is interrupted by the arrival of a messenger who warns her of imminent danger and urges her to escape with her children.

Lady Macduff's entire portrait as a character is painted in this one scene, though it is clear through her actions that she is a fiercely protective mother and a woman who is not afraid to speak out against others.

"[5] When one of the murderers asks where her husband is she bravely replies, "I hope in no place so unsanctified / Where such as thou mayst find him.

Lady Macduff challenges her husband's actions, questioning, "What had he done to make him fly the land?

[11] These nurturing parents contrast starkly with Lady Macbeth's assertion that she would dash her child's brains out rather than give up her ambitions.

Sir William Davenant inaugurated this strategy in his adaptation of 1674,[14] as part of his larger effort to educate the English populace on the proper discipline of human emotions.

In later performances of Macbeth, especially during the eighteenth century, the violence of the murder of children could not be tolerated and Act IV Scene ii was generally deleted even as late as 1904.

He argues that this choice would have emphasized the connection between the two characters and increased the impact of Lady Macbeth's sleepwalking scene, as well as addressed the shortage of available boy actors.