Donalbain

In Macbeth, it is established that King Duncan has two sons. He has his older son, Malcolm, who he makes the Prince of Cumberland and his heir to the throne in act one, scene four, and he has his younger son, Donalbain. In later acts of the play, Malcolm plays a significant role. He decides to flee to England after Duncan dies in act two, scene three because he worries he might be blamed for killing Duncan. While in England, he persuades the King of England to provide him with 10,000 soldiers under the command of an experienced English general, Siward to remove Macbeth from the throne of Scotland. This army, when joined with rebelling Scottish troops, forms a force that is able to defeat Macbeth's troops and take Dunsinane in act five, allowing Macduff to kill Macbeth. Therefore, Malcolm is very important.

Donalbain, however, does next to nothing in the entire play. As Duncan's younger son, he is not Duncan's heir and so is already less important than Malcolm. In the entire play, he only speaks in act two, scene three, in which Duncan's corpse is discovered. He says, "To Ireland I. Our separated fortune shall keep us both the safer. Where we are, there's daggers in men's smiles. The near in blood, the nearer bloody," (2.3.163-166) to Malcolm after Malcolm has told Donalbain that he plans on going to England. Donalbain says that they should split up and flee to avoid getting killed. He then presumably flees to Ireland. However, he could also go to England, stay in Scotland, commit suicide, or practice breakdancing. There is no way of knowing what he actually does, because he simply disappears after act two, scene three. He never appears again in the play after this scene, and is rarely mentioned. Those few times when he is mentioned give no information as to what he is doing or where he is. Unlike Malcolm, he does not raise an army, overthrow Macbeth, become king, or do anything.

Why does Shakespeare include Donalbain? The play already has quite a few characters who actually do things, yet the few lines Donalbain has could be either cut or changed to Malcolm's lines. It seems that including Donalbain in the play serves no purpose other than giving readers/people watching the play another character to try to keep track of. Does Donalbain have some symbolic role in the play? If so, what? It seems it would be hard for a character to have any meaningful symbolic value when he has about three lines. Is his character relevant? Could he and should he have been cut from the play? I say he has no symbolic value and could and should have been cut.