Look again at Act 3 scene 1. What does it show about Macbeth at this point?
Macbeth is comfortably being king but with only one distraction, his former best friend, Banquo. As I remember Banquo was the only person who was with Macbeth when they both first spoke to the three witches. So Macbeth and Banquo are the only people to know about the prophecies the witches told them. However Macbeth played dirty to make his prophecies come true but Banquo‘s mentality is if his prophecy comes true it does and if it doesn’t come true it doesn’t. So Macbeth’s biggest threat and first priority is to kill both Banquo and his son, Fleance, without anyone knowing and in this scene he has the perfect opportunity to set out everything because Banquo was offered an invitation from Macbeth to attend his feast when Banquo said, ‘My duties are with most indissoluble tie for ever knit’. Macbeth asks ‘Ride you this afternoon?’ followed by Banquo,’Ay, my good Lord’. When Macbeth found out that Banquo and Fleance were going on a break he hired two hit men to hunt down and kill them both but to make sure they kill Fleance because the witches said that Banquo’s predecessors would be kings or heirs to the throne.
