The 'bloody child' is the second of the three apparations conjured up for Macbeth in act 4 sc.1. The apparition instils in Macbeth a stubbornness and a false sense of security by artful equivocation:
"Be bloody, bold and resolute; laugh to scorn
The power of man, for none of woman born
Shall harm Macbeth".
The 'bloody child' the infant Macduff as he looked, when cut out of the bleeding womb of its mother, and covered with blood. Earlier, the first apparition, 'an armed Head', warned Macbeth against the possible threat posed by Macduff. Macbeth found his own fear concerning Macduff echoed by the first Apparition. But Macbeth is unable to read into the equivocation of the second Apparition. Macbeth draws a simplistic conclusion that he is invincible, never to die in the hands of a man.
However, the mystery is unveiled when Macduff tells Macbeth how he was 'from his mother's womb/Untimely ripped'. Macbeth could understand that he has been deceived--'..be these juggling fiends no more believ'd'. Macduff was the man destined to overpower him.
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