Act Three
SCENE ONE: a barren sceptre
‘I fear, thou play'dst most foully for it’ – Banquo suspects Macbeth, but makes no threat of vengeance and is also comforted by the 3W’s other prophecy (‘myself should be root of and father of many kings’ – his tone ironically recalls that of the ambitious Macbeth in earlier scenes)
‘My lord’ – Banquo is clearly not fighting against ‘treasonous malice’ – he is content to serve the murderer if it results in some profit for his house
‘Tonight, we hold a solemn supper’ – use of the royal ‘we’ where the monarch expresses his absolute authority over all his people
Macbeth fears Banquo’s good nature – cf. Lady Macbeth concern of her husbands ‘milk o’ human kindness’
The murder of Duncan has made the murder of Banquo a shameless necessity – Macbeth’s humanity and compassion is well and truly gone
Macbeth hesitated and faltered over his first crime, but no pity or remembrance of old friendship with Banquo holds him back from act which is no sooner thought than done
‘Come fate into the list and champion me to the utterance’ – Macbeth challenges fate to a duel (cf. ‘disdaining fortune’)
The hiring of the murders i.e. using others to do his dirty work shows Macbeth as morally weak – he now meets his enemy from a distance
It seems that the murderers are former soldiers who have been set aside for promotion in a way that offended them – Macbeth convinces them that Banquo was responsible for this (‘thus did Banquo’) and questions their manhood (cf. ‘the poor cat i’ the adage’)
SCENE TWO: a reversal of characters
There is a distance forming between Macbeth and his wife – he is the more brazen one in this scene and she needs to be convinced (cf. 1.7 where these roles were inverted)
‘We will eat our meal in fear and sleep in the affliction of these terrible dreams that shake us nightly’ – cf. ‘Cawdor shall sleep no more’
‘Duncan is in his grave; after life's fitful fever he sleeps well’ – Macbeth envies Duncan, ‘sleeping’ peacefully
‘O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!’ – Macbeth still remains tragic in some form
In the world that the Macbeths have created, total peace does not exist – she talks of ‘doubtless joy’, while he experiences ‘restless ecstasy’
It seems that Lady Macbeth is being cut out of the plan (‘be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck’)
‘Come, seeling night, scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day’ - mirroring LMB’s plea in 1.5; ‘come, thick night, and pall thee … through the blanket of the dark’
SCENE THREE: the change of fortune
This scene is a turning point (or ‘peripeteia’) in Macbeth’s tragedy – from here on, everything goes wrong for Macbeth
‘But who did bid thee join with us?’ – Macbeth anxiety is shown – he doesn’t even trust the original murderers
‘The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day’ – the murderer’s lines are poetic, in contrast to their grizzly task (showing the difference between nature and deed – cf. Macbeth in general)
‘A light, a light!’ – perhaps the torch is a metaphor for the pure and holy Banquo, ‘extinguished’ by immorality and deception (i.e. darkness)
Banquo’s son escapes when the light is knocked out – the forces of darkness seem at odds with those of light
So far, everything has basically been in his favour – Fleance’s escape is his first bit of bad luck
‘Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!’ – a characteristic line from the brave Banquo; even when he is being killed, he thinks of his son – what a gent
SCENE FOUR: a collapse of self-control
‘Both sides are even: here I'll sit in th’ midst’ – suggests order has returned to Scotland (which isn’t true – rank has in fact been distorted by the murders)
Macbeth’s language changes from feeling ‘broad and general as the casing air’, to being ‘cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears’ when he learns of Fleance’s escape (cf. ‘they have tied me to a stake, I cannot fly’)
He loses consciousness of the witnesses when confronted by the ghost – Macbeth has become so warped he can no longer tell apart the natural from the unnatural
His horror changes to contrasting lyrical expression when the ghost disappears – shows how he is swinging from one state of mind to another (i.e. loss of control)
Lady Macbeth’s tone is classic LMB – pragmatic, down to earth, and calm
Nonetheless, he is beyond his wife’s control and restraint, and again, she questions his manhood to stop him
‘You make me strange … when now I think you can … keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, when mine is blanched with fear’ – cf. ‘my hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white’
‘I am bent to know’ – Macbeth is obsessed with the 3W’s prophecy and is desperate to keep power
‘I am in blood stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go over’ – oh, how far he has fallen from the man that was horrified by the original predictions
SCENE FIVE: an unnecessary scene
This scene is generally considered unshakespearean – it was probably added in by Thomas Middleton and thus many productions cut it out
Hecate is an evil and controlling female character – her language echoes that of Lady Macbeth
‘He shall spurn fate, scorn death … security is mortal’s greatest enemy’ – Macbeth will mock death and have a false confidence (which will make him complacent and unguarded in his actions)
The witches are definitely out to get Macbeth, but he isn’t necessarily powerless
SCENE SIX: discussing the dictator
It also seems that public opinion has shifted – Lennox must feel very suspicious since ‘the tyrant’s feast’
Instead of securing the throne, Macbeth’s second crime is revealing his first – darn!
‘Men must not walk too late’ – he holds the throne only through fear
‘Did he not straight in pious rage the two delinquents tear … was not that nobly done?’ – is this dramatic irony or does Lennox afraid to utter his true suspicions?