Banquo Macbeth Banquo and Macbeth Essay

Total Length: 577 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

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Macbeth eventually comes to the realization that Banquo cannot be trusted to help his plot to become king. He realizes that Banquo has a pure spirit and will be a threat to his newly acquired throne and therefore has him murdered. Yet this doesn't end Banquo's role in the story and his spirit is shown first in his son Fleance and then later through ghostly appearances.

The main illustration of the foil between these two friends in the story can be provided by their responses to the two witches. While Macbeth had a somewhat neutral response at first indicated by the statement "this supernatural soliciting cannot be ill / cannot be bad, if ill why hath it given me earnest of success?" This implies that he didn't think it was too bad if it gave him hope for the future. However, the more Macbeth imagined himself as king, the more his lust for it grew. He then begins to think of murder, "my thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical" in which he began his downward plunge into darkness.


However, Banquo had quite the opposite reaction to the witches and remained skeptical of their prophecy until the moments before his eventual death. He even suggested that Macbeth was out of his mind by saying "were such things here as we do speak about, or have we eaten on the insane root, that takes a reason prisoner?" Though Banquo is Macbeth's best friend and very similar to him in most respects, the two characters differed in their belief in the witches words. Since Macbeth put his hope in their prediction, this led him down a dark road while Banquo maintained his integrity in regards to staying….....

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https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/banquo-macbeth-banquo-macbeth-102014