Act Three Scene One.
Speak and behave: Banquo is temporarily alone and can talk in the aside. This signals his importance and gives us a pause before more dramatic action. His use of the list shows he is deeply suspicious of the means by which Macbeth acquired his power. The intimacy of the word, ‘Thou’ shows he is still unaware of his own impending danger. Is this complacency, naivety or arrogance? Impossible to predict? Allows the audience to savour the rapid promotions and ascendancy of Macbeth once again.
The alliterative ‘weird women’ reminds the audience also of the means by which Macbeth has gained power. The nobility of Banquo remains in place as he suggests that Macbeth has ‘play’dst most foully for’t.’ And in a moment we will see both Banquo and Macbeth behaving civilly towards each other when nether is being truthful at all. Once again, this underlines the chaos and division generated by the witches.
Yet there is also a sense that the loyalty of Banquo might also be related to his self-interest too and even that he knows that his knowledge of the witches may allow him t exercise power( blackmail) over Macbeth. Of course, his fallibility is his trust or complacency?
But who could Banquo complain to about his suspicions anyway? And if the consolations of the ‘root’ are strong enough to silence him then is complicit? Notably, Banquo does not follow Macduff to England and Malcolm.
Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
As the weird women promised, and, I fear,
Thou play’dst most foully for’t: yet it was said
It should not stand in thy posterity,
But that myself should be the root and father
Of many kings. If there come truth from them–
As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine–
Why, by the verities on thee made good,
May they not be my oracles as well,
And set me up in hope? But hush! no more.
Sennet sounded. Enter MACBETH, as king, LADY MACBETH, as queen, LENNOX, ROSS, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants
Act Three Scene Four.
Speak and behaves Placatory. Improvisations reveal the spontaneous practicality of the Queen who is ignorant of the murder of Banquo and therefore is acting in the dark, perhaps with a barely acknowledged realisation that she has ceased to be privy to her husband’s most intimate thoughts and actions. This awareness of her estrangement and redundancy is set against the bizarre, dangerously indiscreet behaviour and conversation of the King. The Queen’s affectation of stately civility shows how important control is to her and how much she wants to enjoy their celebration feats, which ironically is ruined by the ghostly visitation or hallucinatory presence, one of their victims.
The spontaneous improvisation of the story of the recurring, ‘fit’ shows her attempt to conciliate the evidently alarmed nobles at the celebration. The smiling civility is contrasted markedly by her whispered and barbed aside, ‘are you a man’ where she returns to her usually successful wounding technique around her husband’s masculinity and sexual potency. However, this scene reveals the humiliating technique has lost its power. The murder of Banquo has removed Macbeth from the influence of his wife and the visitation of Banquo cannot be trivialised by the insults of the Queen who is palpably out of her depth. The oxymoronic language of Macbeth sets him apart from the gathering as if he and Banquo are engaged in some deadly and dreadfully personal communion. Which of course they are.
The attempt at reducing Banquo’s apparition to being the ‘very painting of your fear’ shows that the lack of imagination of the Queen estranges her from any awareness of consequence and foreshadows her own eventual hauntings. Her arrogant belief in her own superiority is ironic as she couldn’t kill Duncan herself. Her cruelty is an attempt to protect them both and perhaps is evidence of her sense of rejection at being excluded. Yet, she still seems too dismissive and complacent. Her need for control is represented in the use of exclamatives, interrogatives and the clear estrangement between the couple. If Macbeth is showing signs of mental instability, then his wife’s lack of emotional accommodation foretells disaster later in the play where their roles become reversed. This is the most miserable celebration feast ever and as the audience knows why it is so lacking in good cheer, it seems totally deserved after the horrors committed by both the new King and Queen, who are malign, criminal usurpers.
Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well: if much you note him,
You shall offend him and extend his passion:
Feed, and regard him not. Are you a man?
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the devil.
O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear:
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well become
A woman’s story at a winter’s fire,
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
Why do you make such faces? When all’s done,
You look but on a stool.
Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
how say you?
Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.
GHOST OF BANQUO vanishes
What, quite unmann’d in folly?
