‘And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
Win us with honest trifles, to betray’s
In deepest consequence.’
Banquo says that the witches correct us with small pieces of information that are not important, so that they can mislead us in matters of deep significance.
The audience can see that Macbeth is thinking to himself of horrible images of killing Duncan that he can become King. We know that Macbeth has a conscience and he has an evil ambition but doesn’t like it.
‘If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair’
If Macbeth murdered Duncan then he would have to kill his son Malcolm as well, otherwise Malcolm would be given the title. Macbeth knows that murder is an act of darkness: to try it, he must douse the ‘signs of nobleness’ in his own mind.
‘Stars hide your fires!’
The audience can see that evil is slowly over riding Macbeth, but he still has a sense of right and wrong.
Lady Macbeth reads the letter from Macbeth and unlike her husband, she pursues without a second thought the intention of murder, from then on Lady Macbeth takes on the murder in her own hands, as she thinks that Macbeth will be able to do it. The audience can see that Lady Macbeth overpowers Macbeth and tells him what to do, not what he thinks is right. Macbeth doesn’t want anything to do with the murder anymore.
‘We will proceed no further in this business’
Macbeth is worried as he still believes in life after death and he wants to live a good life. We can see how influential Lady Macbeth is as she challenges him in his own metaphor, and she wins because of this.
There is a definite contrast between Macbeth and Banquo. Banquo is a good and honest man.
‘My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,’
Banquo’s heart is free from guilt and he is innocent, but Macbeth lies to Banquo and has evil in him.
The audience can see how nervous Macbeth is when he is going to kill Duncan. His mind keeps on playing tricks on him.
‘ Is this a dagger which I see before me,’
Macbeth sees a dagger in his mind, which the audience cannot distinguish.
After Macbeth has killed Duncan his conscience is tremendous.
‘I could not say Amen’
Macbeth could not say Amen because he knew that what he had just done was a terrible sin, and he would be damned. We can see that Macbeth’s conscience is still strong as he thinks that his hands will never be free from the blood. Macbeth believes that the sea that he washes his hands in will be dyed entirely red from the blood, and it will never disappear.
‘Clean from my hand? No; this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.’
Banquo and the others realise that something bad has happened.
‘In the great hand of God I stand, and thence
Against the undivulged pretence I fight
Of treasonous malice.’
The audience sense something is wrong when an old man talks about unnatural happenings.
‘A falcon, towering in her pride of place,
Was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed’
Macbeth is afraid of Banquo, as he is a good man. Evil is frightened of good.
‘Our fears in Banquo
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
Reigns that which would be feared’
Macbeth knows that after he dies the throne will go to Banquo’s son unless he has no son to succeed him. So the audience knows that what Macbeth has done is for Banquo’s children. Macbeth hasn’t gained anything from this.
‘Thus is nothing to be safely thus’
Macbeth is planning to murder Banquo as he knows too much information and that he is a good honest man. Macbeth is growing more confident and we see that now he has committed one murder it is easier to commit another. He no longer needs his wife help, instead he pays two murderers to kill Banquo for him, as it wouldn’t be possible for Macbeth because he has to be at the banquet.
