Who He Is
Companion in arms of Macbeth, captain under King Duncan, and father of Fleance. He hears the witches together with Macbeth, but their promise to him is different, that of sons who will be kings, and he hears all of it as a warning: he suspects that the instruments of evil tell small truths in order to betray in great ones. He is Macbeth's double, the man who saw the same things and did not act, and that is why his descendants, promised kingship by the witches, become the new king's obsession. He dies in a ditch on Macbeth's orders, after sending his son to flee, and he goes on in the play as a ghost and as a line of descent.
Trajectory
In Scene 3 of Act I, he and Macbeth meet the witches on the heath. They promise Macbeth the titles of Glamis, of Cawdor, and of king, and promise Banquo sons who will be kings, though he will not be one himself. When Ross and Angus confirm the naming of Cawdor, Banquo suspects the partial truth and says that, in order to lead us to destruction, the instruments of evil tell us truths. Seeing Macbeth lost in thought, he remarks that new honors cling to a body like new clothes, through use and not because of the mold.
Banquo:
New honors come upon him, / Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold / But with the aid of use.
In Scene 4 of Act I, Duncan receives him together with Macbeth, with thanks and promises. In Scene 6 of Act I, before the castle of Inverness, he is the one who notices the swallows nesting there, a sign of delicate air, in praise of a place where the king is going to be murdered.
In Scene 1 of Act II, at midnight, sleepless, he crosses Macbeth in the courtyard and tells him he dreamed of the witches. Macbeth replies that he does not think of them at all and offers honor in exchange for his support, and Banquo accepts only if he does not lose his honor in seeking to increase it, if his heart stays free of guilt, and if he remains a loyal subject. In Scene 3 of Act II, once the crime is discovered, he proposes to investigate the bloody deed and puts himself in God's hands against the still unrevealed designs of treason.
In Scene 1 of Act III, alone, he notes that Macbeth now has everything the witches promised and fears that he played dirty to get there. And he still wonders whether the witches, having been right about Macbeth, may not be oracles for him as well. Invited to the banquet, he says he will ride with Fleance.
In Scene 3 of Act III, he arrives on foot with his son, who carries a torch, and remarks that it will rain. The murderers attack him, and he dies after sending his son away.
O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! / Thou mayst revenge.(III.3)
In Scene 4 of Act III, the first murderer tells Macbeth, at the door of the hall, that Banquo is dead in a ditch and that Fleance has escaped. Back at the table, Macbeth sees Banquo's ghost sitting in his place, which the guests cannot see. In Scene 1 of Act IV, among the apparitions of the witches, he sees eight kings pass by, the last one with a mirror in hand, and Banquo, bloody, who smiles and points at them: the line promised in Scene 3 of Act I.
Themes Embodied
Banquo and Macbeth hear the witches together and read their promises in opposite senses. Banquo suspects that evil offers small truths in order to betray great ones, and says so aloud in Scene 3 of Act I, while Macbeth completes on his own what the witches did not say. The two sides of the same Fate and Free Will are in that scene.
What makes Banquo dangerous to Macbeth is his own character. In Scene 1 of Act III, Macbeth says that his fear has roots in Banquo's nobility, and that he acts only when he is safe. At the same time, the prophecy of the kingly sons makes Banquo the target of the Violence that Macbeth begins to exercise out of fear.
Banquo is not innocent of all temptation. In Scene 1 of Act III, he knows or suspects that the new king played dirty, and instead of accusing him, he keeps the hope that the prophecy about his sons will also come true: he uses another man's crime to feed his own waiting. What separates him from Macbeth is the gesture: the Supernatural offers itself to both of them, and only one of them takes the shortcut.
Dead, he occupies more space than alive. The ghost at the banquet and the procession of kings in Scene 1 of Act IV are the way the play says that Macbeth's Guilt has a face, and what he wanted to prevent by killing Banquo returns as an image he cannot stop looking at.
Relationships
- Macbeth: the companion in arms who hears the witches with him, who asks him for support in Scene 1 of Act II, and on whose orders he dies in Scene 3 of Act III.
- Duncan: the king who embraces him, after thanking Macbeth, in Scene 4 of Act I, and to whom Banquo declares his loyalty in Scene 1 of Act II.
- Lady Macbeth: the hostess whose castle he praises in Scene 6 of Act I, and who, at the banquet in Scene 4 of Act III, tries to erase the scene of his ghost.
- The Witches: those who promise him a line of kings, and whom he confronts with suspicion in Scene 3 of Act I.
- Macduff: the baron who, in Scene 3 of Act II, joins Macbeth in swearing to investigate the bloody deed.