Scene Summary
This act opens with Banquo alone, preparing to depart. He contemplates Macbeth’s rise to power and how it matches the witches’ prophecy, though he suspects it was done using unworthy means. Hushing himself hearing people approach, Banquo realises Macbeth and Lady Macbeth enter, now king and queen of Scotland, along with their servants and thanes. They greet Banquo kindly and ask if he is to stay for the feast. He refuses, saying he is going for a ride, but will return by nightfall. Macbeth remarks that his advice would have been helpful at a council discussing his nephews Malcolm and Donalbain, who he claims have confessed to murdering Duncan, though the audience knows this to be a lie. After asking if Fleance, Banquo’s son, is riding with him, Macbeth allows Banquo to leave, wishing him luck on his ride. After he leaves, Macbeth asks a servant to bring the men waiting for him outside the castle. Left alone, Macbeth wonders about the threat that Banquo presents to his rule, fearful of his noble nature and the wisdom he possesses. He worries about the witches’ prophecy to him, and remembers how Banquo laughed when the witches first pronounced Macbeth as king, before asking them himself and being told he will produce a line of kings. He fears that someone outside his family will snatch the kingship, and grows angry, declaring he will make his own future and do what needs to be done.
He then welcomes two murderers into his presence, asking them if they thought on what he had told them the day before when they first met. He tells them it was Banquo who made their lives miserable, not him, and asks if they’re simply going to let Banquo go unpunished for keeping their families in poverty. They respond simply that they’re men, but Macbeth compares them to lowly dogs, provoking them by stating that by killing Banquo they can climb higher towards Macbeth’s position. By capitalising on their anger at the world, Macbeth manipulates them into seeing Banquo as their enemy. Macbeth claims he would kill Banquo himself if it wasn’t for their common allies, and once receiving the support of the murderers, orders them to wait on the road and to kill Banquo and Fleance. Ordering them to leave, much like before he killed Duncan, Macbeth states ominously that “Banquo thy soul’s flight. / If it find heaven, must find it out tonight.”
Scene Analysis
Jumping forward in time, this scene serves to establish the consequences of Duncan’s death and the new world Scotland finds itself in under Macbeth’s rule. Banquo mirrors the audience once again, as much like the opening of Act 2, he voices his unease and suspicion at Macbeth’s sudden ascension and more importantly, his seeming fulfilment of the prophecy. Initially, Shakespeare sets a scene of almost normalcy, with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth appearing as gracious and kind hosts, yet the idea of the seen and unseen arises again, with Banquo’s previous confession of unease and the secret plot to kill Banquo started by Macbeth. Macbeth’s hiring of the murderers is a curious action at first glance, as up until this point in the play, all the deaths required to see him in power had two things in common: they were planned by Lady Macbeth and carried out by Macbeth’s own hand. To start with the first point, Lady Macbeth’s absence from this plan and the majority of this act is a subtle hint of her diminished role as the play continues, for in the next scene we see a shift in her character’s personality and actions. Instead, it is Macbeth who plots and manipulates the murders, once again defying his contextual gender role, as instead of going and killing Banquo and Fleance himself, he hires murderers to do the work for him and manipulates them into blaming Banquo for all their problems.
The murderers themselves are curious, as the way Shakespeare writes their dialogue full of lines such as “the vile blows and buffers of the world hath incensed me that I spite the world” possibly hint that the murderers are not professional assassins but rather disgruntled common folk. Shakespeare includes an analogy spoken by Macbeth in reference to dogs and how each dog has role in the world: “the valued file,” as Macbeth puts it. This could be interpreted as Shakespeare making a political statement about the unjust nature of the feudal system, but considering Macbeth is wrongful shifting blame to Banquo, it becomes clearer that Shakespeare is highlighting the wrongful use of power and the damaging effects it can have on others. Aside from themes of power, the issue of destiny once again arises, as before meeting the murderers, Macbeth contemplates the witches’ prophecy again. He is aware enough to recognise that the prophecy of his kingship included no line about an heir of his, but the audience is left to question why Macbeth would even want to take power if he would leave no legacy behind. The answer lies in the famous quote “absolute power corrupts absolutely” – Shakespeare presents Macbeth as a changed man compared to how he was in the first two acts, hiring murderers instead of doing killing by his own hand.
