Ross is a thane who carries news: he brings Macbeth his first reward and Macduff his greatest loss. His movements track Scotland's mood.

In Act 2, Scene 4 he and an Old Man report unnatural signs: day is dark, a "mousing owl" has killed a falcon, and Duncan's horses reportedly "eat each other". Nature itself recoils from regicide.

"Alas, poor country, / Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot / Be call'd our mother, but our grave" (Act 4, Scene 3). Scotland is personified as a mother who has become a grave. The antithesis of "mother" and "grave" shows tyranny reversing nature: the land that should nurture now buries its children, exactly what Ross must next tell Macduff about his own family.
"No; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em." (Act 4, Scene 3). He delays telling Macduff his family are dead. "At peace" is a pun: dead people are at peace. It is equivocation, the Witches' method, used out of pity.

Use him as a chorus figure who reports Scotland's suffering, and as a study in surviving a tyranny: careful, loyal, and on Malcolm's side by the end.

Ross is a thane who carries news: he brings Macbeth his first reward and Macduff his greatest loss. His movements track Scotland's mood.

In Act 2, Scene 4 he and an Old Man report unnatural signs: day is dark, a "mousing owl" has killed a falcon, and Duncan's horses reportedly "eat each other". Nature itself recoils from regicide.

"Alas, poor country, / Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot / Be call'd our mother, but our grave" (Act 4, Scene 3). Scotland is personified as a mother who has become a grave. The antithesis of "mother" and "grave" shows tyranny reversing nature: the land that should nurture now buries its children, exactly what Ross must next tell Macduff about his own family.
"No; they were well at peace when I did leave 'em." (Act 4, Scene 3). He delays telling Macduff his family are dead. "At peace" is a pun: dead people are at peace. It is equivocation, the Witches' method, used out of pity.

Use him as a chorus figure who reports Scotland's suffering, and as a study in surviving a tyranny: careful, loyal, and on Malcolm's side by the end.