Act III: Scene 3
Summary
The hired
murderers meet as arranged. On hearing approaching horses, a signal is given,
and Banquo and his son Fleance are attacked. The murderers' lantern is
accidentally extinguished, and the job is left half-done: Although Banquo is
killed, Fleance escapes.
Analysis
Appropriately,
this scene takes place in the dark; the murderers carry lanterns and fail in
their duty only when the light is accidentally knocked out and the entire stage
is plunged in blackness. But this moment is also highly symbolic, foreshadowed
at the end of Act II, when Ross remarks to the old man "By the clock 'tis
day; / And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp." In Macbeth, the
forces of darkness seem constantly at odds with those of light.
In contrast
to the dark, grisly nature of their job, the murderers' poetic speech is also
comparatively light, particularly in the depiction of a traveler reaching the
inn at sunset: "The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day; / Now
spurs the lated traveller apace / To gain the timely inn" (5-7). One
function of such poetry is to contrast the nature of word and deed. We have
seen the same hypocrisy in Macbeth himself; he, too, is capable of poetry as
well as murder.
Another
function is to remind the audience of the existence of natural order and the
possibility of salvation. In an ideal world, a belated traveler may hope to
find "timely" accommodation, however late the hour. But in a world
where the natural order of things has been inverted and in which light is
extinguished, as it is symbolically in this scene, that hope is also
extinguished. Banquo is riding not toward hospitable welcome but toward his own
extinction.
The escape of
Fleance is the turning point or peripeteia in Macbeth's tragedy. Banquo's dying
words, ordering Fleance to "revenge," remind the audience of the
Witches' prophecy to Banquo: that he will be father to a line of kings, even though
he himself will not attain the throne.
Glossary
direction
just (4) exact instructions/ expectation
(10) invitation
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