Also signficant here is the way that Macduff acts as a foil for Macbeth (and Lady Macbeth, too, perhaps). His first inclination upon hearing of the death of his family is to grieve. "All my pretty ones? / Did you say all?" he moans. When Malcolm says "Dispute it like a man," meaning go and fight Macbeth, Macduff says "I shall do so;/but I must also feel it as a man" (4.3,216-221). Here we have a new definition of manhood not yet seen in the play. Indeed, Lady Macbeth at the beginning worries that her husband is "too full the milk of human kindness" and would herself dash her babe to the ground in order to carry out the murder of Dunca. Macduff is both warrior and father and husband, a man who can love as well as fight.
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