Banquo's Ghost (Le spectre de Banquo)

Macbeth

William Shakespearec. 1606
ShakespeareGruelingTragedyEnglishShort · 68 pages
Influence94th pct
Popularity87th pct
Where it ranks
#26of 194Overall#5of 38Shakespeare

Read this if you…

  • are reading the greatest shakespeares
  • like the theme of guilt, and how one can slowly give in to evil
  • want one of Shakespeare's shorter tragedies

Skip this if you…

  • aren't willing to go slow, read notes, look up analyses of famous passages (only way to "get" shakespeare)
  • foolishly think shakespeare is overrated

Why It Matters

Shakespeare squeezed ambition, guilt, and self-destruction into his shortest, most intense tragedy. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's partnership in murder, and how fast it falls apart, is the definitive picture of how evil eats the people who choose it. 'Out, damned spot' and 'tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow' are stuck in the English language for good.

The Groblé Take

The witches are great, the pure evil of Macbeth is great. The end all be all is a great phrase. The signifying nothing paragraph is sweet. Macduff is the man. I feel bad for sweet banquo

Connections

Where to go next

What It Shapedwhat it set in motionMacbethMoby-Dick or, T…Faust, First Pa…

  • Moby-Dick or, The Whale by Herman Melville. Macbeth shaped it. - Melville bought a large-type Shakespeare in 1849 — *Macbeth* above all — and came out of it with the language to write *Moby-Dick* - Ahab is the *Macbeth* tragic hero hauled out to sea: a man of stature ruined by his own judgment, chasing a doom he's been warned of - Fedallah's equivocating death-prophecy to Ahab is the Witches' riddle structure transposed onto a whaling ship
  • Faust, First Part by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Macbeth shaped it. - Goethe openly admired *Macbeth*'s witches as a model of vivid drama — and they're hovering behind *Faust*'s 'Witch's Kitchen' - The cauldron and its hags were in his mind as he wrote his own scene of supernatural brew - Even the guilt is Shakespeare's: Gretchen's mad fixation on the blood she sees on Faust's hand replays Lady Macbeth's 'out, damned spot'
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Gallery

Depicted in Art

Macbeth and Banquo stand transfixed on a battlefield as three ghastly witches emerge from the haar; Macbeth is tartan-draped with a bloody sword, Banquo helmeted and armoured.

Henry Fuseli, 1794

Three witches materialise from a swirl of mist and lightning on the left as Macbeth and Banquo recoil; a vast army winds along a distant Highland lake.

John Martin, 1820

Macbeth steps back, sword half-drawn, before a disembodied armed head conjured above the cauldron by the three witches in the cavern.

John Henry Fuseli, 1793

Macbeth rises in horror at the banquet table, recoiling from the spectral, blood-streaked figure of Banquo seated in his own chair.

Théodore Chassériau, 1854

Macbeth recoils with the bloody daggers just after Duncan's murder; Lady Macbeth lunges from the dark to snatch them from his hand.

Henry Fuseli, 1812

Macbeth and Banquo on horseback rein up on a windswept moor as three pale, attenuated witches rise out of the heather to address them.

Théodore Chassériau, 1855

A long, crowded banquet hall: Macbeth half-rises from his seat in terror as the ghost of Banquo, visible only to him, occupies the throne.

Daniel Maclise, 1840

Macbeth alone before the three witches as the show of future kings — a procession of crowned figures — files past in the upper register.

George Romney, 1785

Editions

Recommended Editions

#1Top Pick$6.99$6.51

Folger Shakespeare Library

2003

Folger's the readable one. Text on one page, notes on the facing page, written in plain English instead of textbook-speak. Catches every word and reference you'd otherwise Google, without breaking the scene to do it.

Buy on Bookshop
#2

SparkNotes (No Fear Shakespeare)

2003

$7.99$7.45Buy
#3

Arden Shakespeare

2015

$12.95Buy

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Deep Dive

What It's About

Spoiler warning

This summary gives away plot details.

Notable Quotes

“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.”

— The Witches, Act 4, Scene 1

“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!”

— Lady Macbeth, Macbeth

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