Summary: Act 3, scene 1
In the royal palace at Forres, Banquo paces and thinks
about the coronation of Macbeth and the prophecies of the weird
sisters. The witches foretold that Macbeth would be king and that
Banquo’s line would eventually sit on the throne. If the first prophecy
came true, Banquo thinks, feeling the stirring of ambition, why
not the second? Macbeth enters, attired as king. He is followed
by Lady Macbeth, now his queen, and the court. Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth ask Banquo to attend the feast they will host that night.
Banquo accepts their invitation and says that he plans to go for
a ride on his horse for the afternoon. Macbeth mentions that they
should discuss the problem of Malcolm and Donalbain. The brothers
have fled from Scotland and may be plotting against his crown.
Banquo departs, and Macbeth dismisses his court. He is
left alone in the hall with a single servant, to whom he speaks
about some men who have come to see him. Macbeth asks if the men
are still waiting and orders that they be fetched. Once the servant
has gone, Macbeth begins a soliloquy. He muses on the subject of
Banquo, reflecting that his old friend is the only man in Scotland
whom he fears. He notes that if the witches’ prophecy is true, his
will be a “fruitless crown,” by which he means that he will not
have an heir (3.1.62). The murder of Duncan,
which weighs so heavily on his conscience, may have simply cleared
the way for Banquo’s sons to overthrow Macbeth’s own family.
The servant reenters with Macbeth’s two visitors. Macbeth reminds
the two men, who are murderers he has hired, of a conversation he
had with them the day before, in which he chronicled the
wrongs Banquo had done them in the past. He asks if they are angry
and manly enough to take revenge on Banquo. They reply that they
are, and Macbeth accepts their promise that they will murder his
former friend. Macbeth reminds the murderers that Fleance must be
killed along with his father and tells them to wait within the castle
for his command.
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Act 3, scene 1 →
Summary: Act 3, scene 2
Elsewhere in the castle, Lady Macbeth expresses despair
and sends a servant to fetch her husband. Macbeth enters and tells
his wife that he too is discontented, saying that his mind is “full
of scorpions” (3.2.37). He feels that
the business that they began by killing Duncan is not yet complete
because there are still threats to the throne that must be eliminated.
Macbeth tells his wife that he has planned “a deed of dreadful note”
for Banquo and Fleance and urges her to be jovial and kind to Banquo
during the evening’s feast, in order to lure their next victim into
a false sense of security (3.2.45).
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Act 3, scene 2 →
Summary: Act 3, scene 3
It is dusk, and the two murderers, now joined
by a third, linger in a wooded park outside the palace. Banquo and
Fleance approach on their horses and dismount. They light a torch,
and the murderers set upon them. The murderers kill Banquo, who
dies urging his son to flee and to avenge his death. One of the
murderers extinguishes the torch, and in the darkness Fleance escapes.
The murderers leave with Banquo’s body to find Macbeth and tell
him what has happened.
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Act 3, scene 3 →
Analysis: Act 3, scenes 1–3
After his first confrontation with the witches, Macbeth
worried that he would have to commit a murder to gain the Scottish
crown. He seems to have gotten used to the idea, as by this point
the body count has risen to alarming levels. Now that the first
part of the witches’ prophecy has come true, Macbeth feels that
he must kill his friend Banquo and the young Fleance in order to
prevent the second part from becoming realized. But, as Fleance’s
survival suggests, there can be no escape from the witches’ prophecies.
