Macbeth

http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/5700/5790/macbeth_4_lg.gif


Since my earlier presentation was on ghost and I focused on Hamlet, I want to move on to another Shakespeare play that has a ghost. It is Macbeth, a tragedy of a general’s obsession with defeating fate’s set path. He becomes King of Scotland after killing the already king, Duncan, and his best friend Banquo who was predicted to have a child take the throne.
The scene that I want to focus on is the scene where Banquo’s ghost appears to Macbeth only. In this scene, there is a banquet being held with very important Scotland officials where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are the hosts.

LADY MACBETH
My royal lord,
You do not give the cheer: the feast is sold
That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis a-making,
'Tis given with welcome: to feed were best at home;
From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
Meeting were bare without it.

The GHOST OF BANQUO enters, and sits in MACBETH's place

MACBETH
Sweet remembrancer!
Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both!

LENNOX
May't please your highness sit.

MACBETH
Here had we now our country's honour roof'd,
Were the graced person of our Banquo present;
Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
Than pity for mischance!

ROSS
His absence, sir,
Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your highness
To grace us with your royal company.

MACBETH
The table's full.

LENNOX
Here is a place reserved, sir.

MACBETH
Where?

LENNOX
Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your highness?

MACBETH
Which of you have done this?

Lords
What, my good lord?

MACBETH
Thou canst not say I did it: never shake
Thy gory locks at me.

ROSS
Gentlemen, rise: his highness is not well.

LADY MACBETH

Sit, worthy friends: my lord is often thus,
And hath been from his youth: pray you, keep seat;
The fit is momentary; upon a thought
He will again be well: if much you note him,
You shall offend him and extend his passion:
Feed, and regard him not.
[Aside to Macbeth] Are you a man?

MACBETH
Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
Which might appal the devil.

LADY MACBETH
O proper stuff!
This is the very painting of your fear:
This is the air-drawn dagger which, you said,
Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well become
A woman's story at a winter's fire,
Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
You look but on a stool.

MACBETH
Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
how say you?
Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
If charnel-houses and our graves must send
Those that we bury back, our monuments
Shall be the maws of kites.

Exits Banquo's ghost (Act 3, Scene 4, pgs 82-84)

This is the first time the ghost appears. Unlike the Hamlet ghost that appears and talks to Hamlet, Banquo’s ghost sits there and puts fear into Banquo without even doing much. Banquo sits in Macbeth’s place, which in my mind is the head of the table as Macbeth is king right now. Macbeth doesn’t see the ghost until he is asked to sit down. He noticed that the table is full.
As in my ghost research project earlier this year, I found that ghost appears to people who are mad or they appear to help solve a crime. No one at this point knows that Banquo is dead but Macbeth. Having the ghost only appear to Macbeth begins Macbeth’s madness and begins the downfall for Macbeth’s throne. Lady Macbeth, one of the causes of Macbeth’s madness, tries to keep everyone calm while her husband is seeing things that no one else can see.
Before Macbeth sees the ghost, guilt does not hit and it doesn’t seem like Macbeth would feel guilty for being the cause of his best friend’s murder. The ghost brings this emotion out. It would bring anyone’s guilt out if someone you killed come back to haunt you.
The ghost appears again.

MACBETH
I do forget.
Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends,
I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;
Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine; fill full.

Enter GHOST OF BANQUO

I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,
And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss;
Would he were here! to all, and him, we thirst,
And all to all.

Lords
Our duties, and the pledge.

MACBETH
(to the ghost)
Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with!

LADY MACBETH
Think of this, good peers,
But as a thing of custom: 'tis no other;
Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.

MACBETH
What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: or be alive again,
And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
Unreal mockery, hence!

Exit the ghost

Why, so, being gone,
I am a man again. Pray you sit still. (Act 3, Scene 4, pgs 86-88)

Maybe it’s just me who notices this, but the ghost reappears around the time Macbeth says “health” and tries to give a toast to the party. To me this gives a hidden message that Macbeth is not healthy. His mind is not in the right place and guilt is starting to consume him.
Comparing this to the Hamlet ghost, the ghost of Banquo does not have to say anything to start the downfall. In Hamlet, the ghost consumes Hamlet’s mind and convinces Hamlet to take revenge. The Hamlet ghost is a revenge ghost and can be argued to be a demon instead of a good ghost. The Banquo ghost is someone who is recently dead and appears to the one who caused his death. He doesn’t say anything but his actions are greater than words can say. The ghost of Banquo isn’t a main character of Macbeth but does play an important role. The ghost of Banquo is the beginning of the domino effect. Once the ghost appears, dominoes start to fall. In Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet is a main fixture of the play and everything pretty much revolves around him and what was said.
Before Banquo’s ghost appears to Macbeth, and only to Macbeth, things seem to go well for the king. Macbeth and his lovely wife murdered Duncan but it was blamed on guards. Banquo was murdered as well and all they need to do was kill Banquo’s son Fleance for the prophecy not be fulfilled. If the ghost did not appear, Macbeth would probably be able to go on without thinking twice about Banquo. But since the ghost appeared, it was a trigger in Macbeth’s head that he might be haunted by the ghost of his long time friend which to me is one of the worst tortures ever.
Even though the ghost of Banquo does not appear as much as Hamlet’s ghost, it holds the same effect and same end. They are very similar as they are recent murder victims and came back to have somewhat of a revenge. Both are catalysts to the play and create the downfall for both main characters.


Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Nick De Somogyi. New York: Nick Hern Books, Limited, 2004.