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How does Macbeth die?

Macbeth is killed by Macduff on the battlefield in front of Dunsinane in the last scene of the last act. Their sword fighting begins onstage and then is carried offstage. They reenter the stage still fighting, and "Macbeth is slain." It would appear that Shakespeare did not want to show too much of the fighting onstage because there was always the danger that one of his principle actors would get hurt. Ordinarily, Macbeth would probably have won the swordfight. It has been demonstrated that he is a ferocious warrior capable of slaughtering dozens on the battlefield. But he is unnerved when Macduff tells him:



Despair thy charm,
And let the angel whom thou still hast served
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
Untimely ripp'd.           V.7



Macduff replies:



Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow'd my better part of man!




Macbeth does not fight with his accustomed vigor. He is on the defensive. He had been counting on the assurances of the three weird sisters, but he learns that they were equivocating. Birnam Wood has moved to Dunsinane and he is confronted by a highly motivated opponent who was delivered at birth by a crude Caesarian section. But the best that can be said of Macbeth by this point is that he goes down fighting and is even willing to take on Fate.

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