Banquo’s presence in this scene gives the audience an alternative moral view of the witches and their supernatural powers and ‘fantastical ‘ motivation as well as drawing attention to the significant reaction of Macbeth to the witches’ predictions which is where the extract begins immediately after the witches have promised Macbeth that he will be ‘ king hereafter.‘ This revelation produces a tangible physical effect on Macbeth (‘start’) suggesting that the latter’s secret ambition has been recognised by the witches and articulated. This effect alerts Banquo to the seeming irony that a positive prediction is unsettling to the recipient Macbeth. The audience, like Banquo, may wonder why a seemingly wonderful series of promotions create such unease in Macbeth.
Of course, the intimacy, ‘ good sir’ that exists between Banquo and Macbeth, makes the reaction of the latter the subject of curiosity to the former and renders Banquo vulnerable to Macbeth’s later insecurities and paranoia. The audience may also recognise the subtle echoing of the witches destabilising mantra from scene one when Banquo innocently refers to ‘ things that seem so fair.’ Interestingly, the audience might pick up on the ambiguity created by the verb ‘seem’ which anticipates Banquo’s astute understanding of the witches intentions later in the scene. However, the contamination of the word ‘ fair ‘ also communicates the degraded web of deceit cast by the witches and underlines Banquo’s vulnerability too, for this encounter not only ruins Macbeth’s precarious nobility, but it also signs a death warrant on trusting Banquo.
This is dramatically represented by Banquo’s demand that the witches ‘Speak then to me’ after they have ignored him. Such ignorance, the audience’s sense, is deliberate, perhaps because Banquo’s not susceptible to their temptation and also that they might enjoy practically taunting an essentially good character so that he demands a promise from them which will destroy his future ironically illustrated by the metaphorical reference to the ‘ seeds of time.’ The cryptic, paradoxical nature of their response to Banquo underlines their desire to unsettle their victims and feeds the proleptic imagination of Macbeth. ‘ Not so happy, yet much happier.’ The witches adopt faux respect for both Macbeth and Banquo and the audience knowing how premeditated is this meeting, suspects that such behaviour is ironic and even malign.
The delay in Macbeth’s sustained reaction to the witches shows how much he is secretly processing their predictions and ‘strange intelligence’. He queries both his assumption of the title ‘ Thane of Cawdor’ as well as questioning their identity and chosen meeting place on a ‘blasted heath.’ Thus he is canny enough to suspect the witches of corruption and premeditated evil, yet he chooses not to ignore them. He is almost insatiable in his desire to hear more, indicating his secret thirst for power. Once he has been agitated into admitting his powerful ambition, he seeks to know, even more, showing how unsatiated his ambition will prove. ‘ Speak, I charge you.’ Unsurprisingly the fragile demand of a mere human like Macbeth is ignored, thus perpetuating his secret fatal ambition, his ruinous hamartia.
