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He realizes that Banquo has a pure spirit and will be a threat to his newly acquired throne and therefore has him murdered. Yet this doesn't end Banquo's role in the story and his spirit is shown first in his son Fleance and then later through ghostly appearances.
The main illustration of the foil between these two friends in the story can be provided by their responses to the two witches. While Macbeth had a somewhat neutral response at first indicated by the statement "this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill / cannot be bad, if ill why hath it given me earnest of success?" This implies that he didn't think it was too bad if it gave him hope for the future. However, the more Macbeth imagined himself as king, the more his lust for it grew. He...
He even suggested that Macbeth was out of his mind by saying "were such things here as we do speak about, or have we eaten on the insane root, that takes a reason prisoner?" Though Banquo is Macbeth's best friend and very similar to him in most respects, the two characters differed in their belief in the witches words. Since Macbeth put his hope in their prediction, this led him down a dark road while Banquo maintained his integrity in regards to staying virtuous.
Macbeth REVISED Shakespeare's tragedy of Macbeth is, in some ways, the story of a disaster that everyone can see coming. After all, it opens with characters -- the Three Witches -- who can see the future. When Macbeth encounters them, the witches offer what Shakespeare terms "strange intelligence" or "prophetic greeting" -- predicting that he will attain the titles of Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King of Scotland (I.iii).
Shakespeare is, above all, a dramatist whose characters are defined by their language: the language they use and how they are affected by language. There is no singular discourse that unites all of the characters of the play: rather the witches, Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth all share in a particular way of rendering language which begins with the witches' incantation at the beginning of the text and follows through to
Macbeth and Oediups Rex are great tragedies from two very different time periods. Even though such different writers wrote them, and in such different times, the similarities that exist between the two are remarkable. Shakespeare and Sophocles both understood exactly what it took to write great tragedy. By comparing how fate plays a part in each play, it is better seen that perhaps Sophocles and Shakespeare were on similar wavelengths.
In short, he chooses evil over good. Macbeth somehow justifies murdering Banquo and Fleance, which demonstrates his deteriorating mental state. He did not struggle with murdering them as he did with Duncan. He says: For them the gracious Duncan have I murder'd; Put rancours in the vessel of my peace Only for them; and mine eternal jewel Given to the common enemy of man, To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings! (III.i. 65-69). Macbeth no
/ He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear / His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear. / And you all know security / Is mortals' chiefest enemy." (Act III, Scene 5). True to the prophesy of the above words, Macbeth destroys both his security and power by succumbing to the illusion of security. The appearance of extreme wealth and power blinds him to the true danger around him and
Macbeth The title character of Shakespeare's Macbeth is one of its most evil villains. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth both plot a series of heinous murders, beginning with the cold-blooded killing of Duncan, to the chamberlains, Banquo, and Macduff's wife and children. Macbeth's only concern is to obtain and secure his position of power, and he rapidly descends into insanity as the play progresses. As the drama's main character, Macbeth is certainly