Macbeth

Characters

Banquo is Macbeth's friend and fellow commander in Duncan's army; the witches tell him "Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none", and in 3.1 he suspects Macbeth: "Thou played'st most foully for 't."

Context

The procession of kings in Act 4 celebrates James's ancestors, because James traced his lineage to Banquo.

Key quotations: Lady Macbeth, the witches and kingship

Macduff in Act 4 Scene 3, speaking of Scotland under Macbeth: "Bleed, bleed, poor country!"

Key quotations: Macbeth

Macbeth (5.5): "Out, out, brief candle! / Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage".

Language and form

Antithesis puts two opposites together, as in the witches' "Fair is foul, and foul is fair"; opposites such as light and dark, heaven and hell, and false and true recur through the play.

Plot and structure

In 4.1 three apparitions answer Macbeth: an armed head says to beware Macduff, a bloody child says no man born of woman can harm him, and a crowned child holding a tree says he is safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane.

Themes

In 1.3, when Ross hails Macbeth as Thane of Cawdor, the first prophecy has come true and Banquo asks "What, can the devil speak true?"; the RSC cites the line under the theme of fate.

Characters

Duncan's younger son Donalbain flees to Ireland after the murder, while Malcolm flees to England.

Context

In Holinshed's Chronicles Banquo is Macbeth's accomplice in the plot against Duncan; Shakespeare recasts him and his descendants as Macbeth's adversaries, to please King James, who traced his lineage to Banquo.

Key quotations: Lady Macbeth, the witches and kingship

In Act 4 Scene 1 the three witches chant "Double, double toil and trouble; / Fire burn, and cauldron bubble." around the cauldron.