In The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms, 3rd edition, editors Ross Murfin and Supryia Ray define "foil" as follows: "A character whose contrast with the main character (protagonist) serves to accentuate the latter's distinctive qualities or characteristics" (181).
Technically, according to this definition, Macduff or Malcolm can only be considered foils when compared against Macbeth, who is the protagonist. However, if we use a looser definition of foil, basically two characters whose differences highlight each other’s characteristics, then yes, Macduff and Malcolm can be seen as foils for each other, though they do not contrast as strongly with each other as they do with Macbeth.
Unfortunately, Shakespeare does not spend a good deal of time detailing Malcolm's character. We know that he is a loyal son who loved his father. We know that his father has made him direct heir to the throne by naming him Prince of Cumberland. While Malcolm does happen to be Duncan's eldest son, a monarch did not have to name the eldest son or child as next in line if he did not deem them fit to reign - if a son lacked intelligence, sanity, physical health, or moral rectitude, he might be passed over in favor of another sibling. So, because Duncan does not choose Malcolm's younger brother Donalbain to be the heir, we know that Duncan has faith in his first-born son. We know that Malcolm is intelligent and strategic and also less trusting than his poor, gullible father. This is demonstrated in Malcolm's words to his brother after the body of their father is discovered:
What will you do? Let's not consort with them:
To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
Which the false man does easy. I'll to England. (II. iii)
Once in England, Malcolm meets with the king and his uncle Siward, the Earl of Northumberland, in order to raise an army to unseat Macbeth and claim his rightful place as heir. Macduff and Malcolm share the characteristics of being loyal to King Duncan and to Scotland, but there are several ways in which the two men contrast and appear as foils for each other.
Unlike Malcolm, Macduff seems immediately suspicious of Macbeth. In Act II, Scene iii, when Macbeth explains why he killed King Duncan’s guards, the following exchange takes place:
LENNOX
Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done 't:
Their hands and faces were all badged with blood;
So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
Upon their pillows:
They stared, and were distracted; no man's life
Was to be trusted with them.MACBETH
O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
That I did kill them.MACDUFF
Wherefore did you so? (II. iii)
Macbeth goes on to explain that his love for Duncan and anger at the supposed murderers overwhelmed his reason and he acted in a fit of passion and killed the guards. All characters on stage feel this is a strange turn of events; Macbeth has killed the only two witnesses to the crime – two men who had nothing to gain from the king’s death. In fact, the whole thing seems so hinky that Lady Macbeth pretends to faint in order to get the attention off her husband. Macduff is the first to question Macbeth. While Malcolm is suspicious of all the thanes who were present at Inverness, Macduff seems to focus in on Macbeth right away, revealing himself to be a shrewder judge of character than Malcolm. Macduff’s suspicion is seen further when he does not attend Macbeth’s coronation, but instead returns home to Fife.
In several of his actions, Macduff reveals himself to be a braver man than Malcolm. Malcolm flees Scotland to save his own life and to regroup before taking on Macbeth. He knows that whoever has killed his father will also kill the next in line to the throne. Macduff flees Scotland to beg Malcolm and Siward’s aid to save his country from Macbeth’s tyranny. In doing so, he leaves his wife and many children unprotected and suffers the ignominy of being labeled a traitor. The other thanes who abandon Macbeth only do so after they receive word that Malcolm is coming with a massive army. They simply are not willing to sacrifice until they are sure. Macduff takes this gamble at the outset, and as a result, his wife and all his children are murdered by Macbeth’s mercenaries. Even Banquo, who knows of the witches’ prophecies, and knows what Macbeth might possibly do, does not warn Duncan for fear that anything he does might scuttle his own predictions that his son Fleance and his many grand-heirs will be Kings of Scotland. Macduff seems to be the only thane willing from the jump to sacrifice for his country.
Macduff is a more honest man than Malcolm as well. In the often skipped Act IV, Scene iii, Malcolm is in England and is raising his army. Macduff comes to plead for help. Malcolm, in order to test whether Macduff’s loyalty is to him or to his country itself, begins listing supposed horrible character traits he has and supposed horrible things he will do once he becomes king. He claims as a king he will be hungry for power, money, and sex that he will destroy the churches and monasteries, take the land from the thanes, and claim their wives and daughters to satisfy his debaucherous lust. These are all lies. He pushes this false description of himself to this point:
MALCOLM
If such a one be fit to govern, speak:
I am as I have spoken.MACDUFF
Fit to govern!
No, not to live. O nation miserable,
With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd,
When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,
Since that the truest issue of thy throne
By his own interdiction stands accursed,
And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father
Was a most sainted king: the queen that bore thee,
Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,
Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!
These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself
Have banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast,
Thy hope ends here! (IV. iii)
After this, Malcolm explains that he was only lying to test Macduff’s loyalty to Scotland and Macduff very reluctantly accepts this explanation. Were the situations reversed, Macduff would not have lied to Malcolm. Throughout the play, Macduff does not show deception of any kind.
For these reasons, Macduff also stands as the strongest foil to Macbeth. With the exception of Duncan, Macduff stands as the most truly moral character of the play. And as the reader can see, the two most moral characters of the play are the two most punished: Duncan loses his throne and his life despite his kindness and trust and Macduff loses his entire family. This speaks to Shakespeare’s overarching theme of the pervasive corrupting nature of power and greed, that it creates an atmosphere in which the world is stood on its head, and the evil are rewarded and the good punished.
All quotations from Macbeth were taken from The Literature Network at:
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