Banquo

Banquo

1. He represents the good in the play due to the fact that a James the First commisioned the play, and is loosely related to a Banquo.

2. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! Thou mayst revenge. O slave!

   • It tells the audience that Banquo knows that Macbeth has sent these murderers to kill him so that he cannot tell anyone about the witches prophecy and that he killed King Duncan to fulfil the last part of the 1st prophecy he receives on their way to Forres after the battle with the rebels and the Norwegians.

3. Banquo - The brave, noble general whose children, according to the witches’ prophecy, will inherit the Scottish throne. Like Macbeth, Banquo thinks ambitious thoughts, but he does not translate those thoughts into action.

   • In a sense, Banquo’s character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take: a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder. Appropriately, then, it is Banquo’s ghost—and not Duncan’s—that haunts Macbeth. In addition to embodying Macbeth’s guilt for killing Banquo, the ghost also reminds Macbeth that he did not emulate Banquo’s reaction to the witches’ prophecy.
     • Emulate - match or surpass (a person or achievement), typically by imitation.