Shakespeare, Year 10: Banquo, Macduff and the witches (Macbeth option)

That his descendants will be kings, although he will not be one himself

Hint“Get” here means to father.

The whyBanquo hears a prophecy as tempting as Macbeth's and does nothing to make it happen. That is why he is often called Macbeth's foil: the same test, the opposite response.

Banquo

HintThe only other person who heard the prophecies.

The whyHe says it alone on stage, so the audience knows he suspects Macbeth of murder. He does not act on it, and is killed two scenes later.

His son, Fleance

HintA boy carrying a torch.

The whyBecause Fleance lives, the prophecy about Banquo's line can still come true. Macbeth's reaction, at the banquet in Act 3 Scene 4, is “Then comes my fit again”: he can never feel safe.

Macduff

HintThe Thane of Fife.

The whyIt happens in Act 2 Scene 3. From the start Macduff is tied to honest, open feeling, the opposite of the Macbeths' acting.

feel

HintThe opposite of bottling it up.

The whyThe play keeps asking what it means to be a man. Lady Macbeth says it means being ready to kill; Macduff says it includes grief.

foul; fair

HintTwo short opposites beginning with f, swapped round.

The whyThe line says good and bad are about to change places. It sets up a play in which nothing is what it looks like.

The witches'

HintThey chanted the same two adjectives.

The whyHe has not met them yet. One reading is that he is already tuned to their way of thinking before they speak to him.

No

HintLook at what they actually say in Act 1 Scene 3.

The whyThey only greet him with titles. The idea of murder is his: within lines he speaks of a “horrid image” that makes his hair stand on end. How far they are to blame is something the play leaves open.

Banquo

HintMacbeth's fellow general, standing beside him on the heath.

The whyHe means that evil powers offer small truths to win trust and then betray you over something that matters. It describes exactly what happens to Macbeth.

trouble

HintIt names what the witches are brewing for Scotland.

The whyThe witches speak in short rhyming lines with a heavy beat, quite unlike the verse the human characters use. It makes them sound like people casting a spell.