The reader finds in Shakespeare’s Macbeth that the cunning and machinations of evilly inclined people do not pay off. On the other hand, the progeny of the honest will rule the kingdom. This paper is the story of Banquo the innocent.
Lily B. Campbell in her volume of criticism, Shakespeare’s Tragic Heroes: Slaves of Passion, discusses how fear enters the life of Banquo with the murder of Duncan and his two attendants:
And as Lady Macbeth is helped from the room, we see fear working in the others. Banquo admits that fears and scruples shake them all, even while he proclaims his enmity to treason. But Banquo fears rightly the anger or hatred of the Macbeth who has power to do him harm. (222)
In Everybody’s Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies, Maynard Mack explains how the Bard upgraded the Holinshed version of Banquo:
His [King James] family, the Stuarts, claimed descent from Banquo, and it is perhaps on this account that Shakespeare departs from Holinshed, in whose narrative Banquo is Macbeth’s accomplice in the assassination of Duncan, to insist on his “royalty of nature” and the “dauntless temper of his mind” (3.1.50). Many critics see a notable compliment to James in the dumb show of kings descending from Banquo (“What, will the line stretch out to th’ crack of doom?” (186)
Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare comment that Banquo is a force of good in the play, set in opposition to Macbeth:
Banquo, the loyal soldier, praying for restraint against evil thoughts which enter his mind as they had entered Macbeth’s, but which work no evil there, is set over against Macbe…
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…ble, 1970.
Clark, W.G. and Aldis Wright, eds. Introduction. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Nelson Doubleday, Inc., n. d.
Frye, Northrop. Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1967.
Kemble, Fanny. “Lady Macbeth.” Macmillan’s Magazine, 17 (February 1868), p. 354-61. Rpt. in Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 1997.
Mack, Maynard. Everybody’s Shakespeare: Reflections Chiefly on the Tragedies. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1993.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http://chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin.
Wilson, H. S. On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press, 1957.
Banquo, the Hero of Shakespeare’s Macbeth
Banquo, the Hero of Macbeth
Shakespeare’s tragedy Macbeth is not able to inspire the reader with the characters of the Macbeths. But it is able to give good example with the character of Banquo, who, as most heroes, dies an early death.
In his book, On the Design of Shakespearean Tragedy, H. S. Wilson says that the ghost of murdered Banquo has the greatest emotional impact on Macbeth of any adverse experience:
He is confident enough, even after the commission of the crime, to put his faith in the Senecan maxim, per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est iter, “Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.” After he has been shaken by the appearance of the ghost of Banquo, he reflects,
For mine own good
All causes must give way. I am in blood
Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o’er;
and this is as near as he ever comes to repentance. (71)
Fanny Kemble in “Lady Macbeth” contests the opinion that the ghost of Banquo is seen at the same time by Lady Macbeth:
Taking the view I do of Lay Macbeth’s character, I cannot accept the idea (held, I believe, by her great representative, Mrs. Siddons) that in the banquet scene the ghost of Banquo, which appears to Macbeth, is seen at the same time by his wife, but that, in consequence of her greater command over herself, she not only exhibits no sign of perceiving the apparition, but can, with its hideous form and gesture within a few fee of her, rail at Macbeth in that language of scathing irony . . . (117)
Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare comment that Banquo is a force of good in the play, set in opposition to Macbeth:
Banquo, the loyal soldier, praying for restraint against evil thoughts which enter his mind as they had entered Macbeth’s, but which work no evil there, is set over against Macbeth, as virtue is set over against disloyalty. (792)
In Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye explains the rationale behind Banquo’s ghost in this play:
Except for the episode of Hercules leaving Antony, where mysterious music is heard again, there is nothing really supernatural in Shakespeare’s tragedies that is not connected with the murder of the order-figures.