Macbeth act 4

In act 4 scene 2, there are a ton of references to birds. I’m not sure if Shakespeare intended some kind of hidden meaning or if he just liked using metaphors that compare human actions to those of birds. The first example of this is when Lady Macduff is talking about her husband fleeing the country. She asks “What had he done to make him fly the land?” (4.2.1) She also says that “His flight was madness (4.2.4)” She questions his thinking again, saying “To leave his wife, to leave his babes,/His mansion and his titles in a place/From whence himself does fly?” (4.2.8-10)

She also says that “The most diminutive of birds, will fight,/Her young ones in her nest, against the owl” (4.2.12-13) which serves to criticize Macduff for not protecting his family, since even the smallest of birds would have done so. Lady Macduff then asks her son what he will do now that his father is dead, and asks how he will live. He replies “As birds do, mother” (4.2.37), meaning that he'd take whatever comes to him. to which she replies “Poor bird, thou’dst never fear the net nor lime,/The pitfall nor the gin” (4.2.40-41). She's basically saying that he wouldn't know to fear traps/other things that might kill him and that he would get caught easily and die. This line is kind of ironic considering the fact that murderers swarm the room soon after and he is killed rather easily. 

Their conversation is then interrupted as a Messenger enters and warns them that danger approaches. Lady Macduff then asks “Whither should I fly?” (4.2.81). Murderers enter the room, and one of them says “What, you egg?” (4.2.94) to the son right before stabbing him. Egg is supposed to be a term of contempt for a child, which can relate back to Lady Macduff talking about the “Poor bird.” 

This last quote didn’t involve birds (though it should have) but it just seemed like a missed opportunity to me. As the son dies he says to his mother “Run away, I pray you” (4.2.98). I feel like this would have been the perfect moment for him to yell for his mother to fly away but he missed out. Yelling for her to fly would’ve made for some better dying words than what he went for (which was essentially “I’m dying, run away”). I guess you can’t always think of something cool to say on the spot, especially when you’re bleeding to death, but the son just really missed out considering the fact that they spent the entire scene making bird references.