The Victory of Banquo in Shakespeares Macbeth :: Free Essay Writer

The Victory of Banquo in Macbeth The audience sees in Shakespeares Macbeth that the one who ends up victorious, the one whose family will provide kings for the kingdom, is the innocent, spiritually inclined Banquo. It is he about whom this essay will deal. In Shakespeare and Tragedy John Bayley discusses Banquo shortly before his murder . . . like Banquo, who, in the tense arcminute before the murder, expresses in more forceful form the idea of evil speculation and possibility as ranging in the mind Merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose. II.i.7-9 At such a moment the activities of the mind become almost palpable and express themselves in corporeal form, as they do in the other two mind tragedies. In the speech which he imagines the thoughts that may come to him when he goes to rest, Banquo hands his sword to his watchword Fleance, and then - with a dream-like precision - hands over his belt with its dagger too Hold, take my sw ord. Theres husbandry in heaven Their candles are all out. make do thee that too. (188-89) Lily B. Campbell in her volume of criticism, Shakespeares Tragic Heroes Slaves of Passion, discusses how fear enters the life of Banquo with the murder of Duncan and his two attendants And as Lady Macbeth is helped from the room, we see fear working in the others. Banquo admits that fears and scruples jar them all, even while he proclaims his enmity to treason. But Banquo fears rightly the anger or hatred of the Macbeth who has power to do him harm. (222) Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete full treatment of William Shakespeare comment that Banquo is a force of good in the play, set in opposition to Macbeth Banquo, the loyal soldier, praying for restraint against evil thoughts which enter his mind as they had entered Macbeths, further which work no evil there, is set over against Macbeth, as virtue is set over against disloyalty. (792) In Fools of Time Studies in Sh akespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye explains the rationale pot Banquos ghost in this play Except for the episode of Hercules leaving Antony, where mysterious music is heard again, there is nonhing really supernatural in Shakespeares tragedies that is not connected with the murder of the order-figures.