Macbeth

Ebtehal Al-Malki

The Banquet Scene (Macbeth’s visions and

hallucinations)

• The Banquet Scene opens at the royal hall of Scotland with the banquet ready celebrating Macbeth’s coronation. It is very important and simultaneously the high point of Macbeth’s reign and the beginning of his downfall . it shows us how Macbeth's fear controls him and will destroy his life. Moreover, his fear does not end by death of Banquo because his fear inside himself and will grow.

• When Macbeth kills the king and takes the throne, Banquo—the only one aware of this encounter with the witches—reserves judgment for God. He is unsure whether Macbeth committed regicide to gain the throne, but muses in a soliloquy that "I fear / Thou play'dst most foully for 't". He offers his respects to the new King Macbeth and pledges loyalty.

• Later, worried that Banquo's descendants and not his own will rule Scotland, Macbeth sends some murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance because he cannot bear the idea that Banquo's sons should be kings. During the melee, Banquo holds off the assailants so that Fleance can escape, but is himself killed. Only he has one soliloquy after the crime to praise Banquo as friend and how only he kills him to keep his position. The ghost of Banquo later returns to haunt Macbeth. A terrified Macbeth sees him, while the apparition is invisible to his guests. He appears again to Macbeth in a vision granted by the Three Witches, wherein Macbeth sees a long line of kings descended from Banquo.

• Macbeth’s bizarre behavior puzzles and disturbs his subjects, confirming their impression that he is mentally troubled. Despite the guilt, Lady Macbeth here appears surefooted and stronger than her husband, but even her attempts to explain away her husband’s “hallucination” are ineffective when paired with the evidence of his behavior.

• The contrast between this scene and the one in which

Duncan’s body was discovered is striking—whereas Macbeth was once cold-blooded and surefooted, he now allows his anxieties and visions to get the best of him.

• It is unclear whether Banquo’s ghost really sits in Macbeth’s chair or whether the spirit’s presence is only a hallucination inspired by guilt. Macbeth, of course, is thick with supernatural events and characters, so there is no reason to discount the possibility that a ghost actually stalks the halls. Some of the apparitions that appear in the play, such as the floating dagger in Act 2, scene 1, and the unwashable blood that Lady Macbeth perceives on her hands in Act 4, appear to be more psychological than supernatural in origin, but even this is uncertain. These recurring apparitions or hallucinations reflect the sense of metaphysical dread that consumes the royal couple as they feel the fateful force of their deeds coming back to haunt them.

• Banquo’s ghost plays an important and integral role in the development of the tragic action of the play and in bringing about the nemesis of Macbeth.

• In fact Shakespeare's world of spirit appears as the physical embodiment of the images conjured up by lively fancy and the presence of the apparition is felt only by those who have an excitable imagination. However, the ghost in the Banquet scene of �Macbeth is not merely a stage device, but an integral part of the tragedy. The ghost in �Macbeth can be interpreted as the subjective projection of Macbeth's own troubled sense of morality. This scene has been preceded by the murder of Banquo. After his murder, feasting at Macbeth's palace is significantly emphasized. Hospitality is bounteous. But the appearance of the murderer withdraws Macbeth's attention. The murderer appears with ominous tidings helping to set the tempo of the play. In reply to his: "My lord, his throat is cut That I did for him"- Macbeth replies in a tone naively innocent irony: "Thou art the best o'th'...