-
Macduff's Son and the Queer Temporality of Macbeth
- SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 57, Number 2, Spring 2017
- pp. 369-388
- 10.1353/sel.2017.0016
- Article
- Additional Information
- Purchase/rental options available:
Most early modern children are studied for their value as victims or historical objects. This article, however, argues for the narrative function of children, and consequently considers Macduff's son as a harbinger of the queer temporality of Macbeth. Even in the early modern period, children symbolized futurity, yet I contend that young Macduff's unsettling characterization fails to achieve that expectation. He oscillates between innocence and uncanny adultness, contrasting states that mark the young boy as a "queer child." I argue, therefore, that young Macduff's disrupted and disrupting life offers a microcosm of Macbeth's relation to time, revealing this minor character's overlooked structural and thematic significance.