Scene summary
In the banquet hall, Macbeth greets the guests and, at the door, speaks in a low voice with the first murderer, whose face is smeared with blood. The man reports that Banquo is dead in a ditch, with twenty gashes in his head, but that Fleance escaped. Macbeth is alarmed, since the living son keeps the prophecy alive, and he calls the boy a worm that will in time breed poison. Lady Macbeth reminds him that the host must cheer up the feast. Lennox invites him to sit, and Banquo's ghost enters and takes Macbeth's place. Not having seen it yet, Macbeth laments his friend's absence. Only Macbeth sees the ghost and speaks with it, while Lady Macbeth explains to the lords that her husband has had these fits since his youth, and she rebukes him in a low voice for cowardice. The ghost vanishes, and Macbeth returns to drinking, but when he toasts Banquo the ghost returns, and Macbeth sends it away. Lady Macbeth dismisses the nobles. Alone with her, Macbeth says that blood calls for blood, wonders why Macduff did not come, remembers that he has a paid servant in every house, and decides to seek the Witches the next day, because he wants to know the worst by the worst means. He admits he is stuck in blood so deep that he can go neither back nor forward, and Lady Macbeth answers that what he lacks is sleep.
Analysis
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