How was Macbeth's confidence increased as Act 4 Scene 1 ended?

Answer 1

Macbeth [c. 1014-August 15, 1057] increased his confidence in his ability to hold onto his job as King of Scotland. He felt more confident because of his decision to leave nothing living or breathing at Macduff's home in Fife. At the beginning of Act 4 Scene 1 of the Shakespearean play, Macbeth was worried about his job as King. But the witches assured him of success against men born of women. They also convinced him of success as long as Birnam Wood didn't move to Dunsinane Castle. They showed him Banquo's ghost following a long royal line. But they warned him, not of Banquo, but of Macduff. Macbeth wasn't given practical interpretations of the witches' warnings. Neither was he encouraged to think along practical lines. So he saw improbable warnings as being improbable events. The only probable warning was against Macduff, whom he thought that he could handle in lethal ways. Macbeth's first plan was the murder of Macduff. But Lennox told him of Macduff's flight into England. Macbeth therefore projected his murderous vision onto Macduff's entire family and household. The Fife Castle massacre would anger Macduff. But Macbeth believed that Macduff, as just another man born of woman, could be handled. What Macbeth didn't know was that Macduff hadn't been born of a living, breathing woman. In fact, he had been delivered, not born, by Caesarian section from a recently dead mother. Technically, he therefore he had come into the word from a corpse, not a woman.