Act 3 Quotes and commentary
Macbeth is now King. We start to see how this changes Macbeth. Guilt still haunts
him but now FEAR plays a big part in determining his actions.
SCENE 1
Line 1-5 Banquo is suspicious of Macbeth “I fear thou played’st most foully for’t”
(the crown) He thinks he killed Duncan
Line 48-73 Macbeth fears Banquo and the prophecy that Banquo will father Kings but
he will not
“to be thus (King) is nothing …our fears in Banquo”
So Macbeth arranges Banquo and Fleance’s murder, however LM does not know of
this plan
L62/63 supports our knowledge of Macbeth’s feelings toward being King and the
prophecy
Lines 62/63 “fruitless crown,…..a barren sceptre in my hand.’
Macbeth convinces the murderers by calling their manhood into question, just like
LM did to him
Line 90 ‘we are men, my liege”
SCENE 2
LM tries to make M feel better, to reduce his anxiety about the crown and the killing
of Duncan.
Lines 11/12 “things without remedy should be without regard; what’s done is done”
LMs attitude is to not worry about the bad things you have done in the past
BUT Macbeth still persists in his worries and fears
Line 17/18 we will eat our meal in fear, and sleep in the affliction of these terrible
dreams” (SLEEP and GUILT)
Line 36 “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! Thou know’st that Banquo and
his Fleance lives”
Line 45 Macbeth doesn’t tell LM about arranging for Banquo’s murder “be innocent
of the knowledge, dearest chuck”.
This is a role reversal, M is now doing the arranging of murder not LM
SCENE 3 –Banquo’s murder, Fleance flees
SCENE 4
Macbeth reacts badly to the news that Fleance lives
Line 26 – “But now I am bound in saucy doubts and fears”
Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo at the feast attended by all the important Thanes of
Scotland (except MacDuff)
LM tries to stop him acting strangely and giving their plans and murder of Duncan
and now Banquo away – she again attacks his manhood:
Line 58 “Are you a man?”
This doesn’t work so she tries to calm him down by saying the ghost is just an
hallucination
Line 61 “this is the painting of your fear, this is the air drawn dagger”
LM is still the strong one, trying to calm things down so the guests don’t suspect
anything. Macbeth is wracked with guilt as evidenced by seeing Banquo’s ghost.
Line 97 – “think of this, good peers But as a thing of custom (something that is
normal for Macbeth)
After the ghost leaves Macbeth is determined to be a stronger man and take control,
he has done some bad deeds already (2 murders) and there is no going back to his old
self
Line 136 – “I am in blood, stepped in so far”
Line 144 – “we are young in deed” – This indicates that there are more murders to
come
SCENE 6
We begin to see evidence that more people see Macbeth as a bad King and a tyrant.
In line 49 - Lennox says “Our suffering country under a hand accursed”