Direct Effect Of Banquo's Death In Macbeth

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In the tragedy Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth murders the King of Scotland so he can become the king himself. To maintain this power, Macbeth hires murderers to kill his best friend Banquo because a prophecy claimed that Banquo’s children would be king. His wife Lady Macbeth assists him with the murder of King Duncan, but takes her own life at the end of the play because guilt consumes her. As Macbeth becomes increasingly focused on his power, his sanity and satisfaction with life decrease, which furthers the theme that power causes unhappiness because of the consuming nature of ambition. The news from the murderers causes Macbeth to abnormally fixate on Banquo’s death, establishing his unstable thought process and mental state. Banquo’s ghost's appearance reveals that Macbeth is not …show more content…

None of the other guests can see it so it’s only in Macbeth’s mind. He tells the ghost to not “shake thy gory locks” at him, which emphasizes through imagery Macbeth’s preoccupation with how he died, with twenty wounds to the head (3.4.61,62). Focusing on Banquo’s death is a direct effect of Macbeth’s quest to remain in power which only serves to bring continued discontent. After the ghost leaves, a motif of blood is present in Macbeth’s line “It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood”(3.4.51). This repetition symbolizes the repetition of his brain being stuck on Banquo’s death. Macbeth ignores the others in the room and pays no heed to the appearance of his actions. Any sense of dignity or self preservation have left him in place of the fixation of the death of his friend, a death that he brought about by his ambition and desire to rule. The motif reoccurs later in the scene as Macbeth states that he is “in blood stepped in so far that, should [he] wade no more, returning [would be] as tedious as go oe’er” (3.4.168-170). He feels

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