Macbeth Act 3 Scene 4 Notes - Sir Thomas Boughey High School

You should consider:
• the thoughts and feelings Macbeth and Lady Macbeth express
• the way other characters react to them
• what makes the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth so important.
Act 3 scene 4
A room in the palace.
The Murderers kill Banquo but Fleance manages to escape. In the castle,
Macbeth welcomes the Thanes to the banquet.
The first Murderer informs Macbeth privately that Banquo has been killed,
but Macbeth is dismayed to hear of Fleance’s escape.
Macbeth pretends to be disappointed at Banquo’s absence from the feast
and then is appalled by the sight of his ghost.
Lady Macbeth tries to reassure the Thanes that her husband’s strange
behaviour is nothing to worry about and then privately rebukes him for
showing his fear.
Macbeth apologises to the Thanes and tries to regain his composure, but is
unnerved by the reappearance of the ghost.
The Thanes depart in a disorderly manner, leaving Macbeth to brood upon
the uncanny ways in which murders are often revealed. He wonders
suspiciously why Macduff had refused to attend the feast.
You should consider:
• the thoughts and feelings Macbeth and Lady Macbeth express
MACBETH
Is a generous host and does not want
the occasion to be too formal.
‘You know your own degrees; sit down:
at first / And last the hearty welcome’
Does not wish to seem superior to his
guests.
‘play the humble host’
Encourages guests to enjoy
themselves
‘Be large in mirth’
Is pleased Banquo is dead
‘Thou art the best o’ the cut-throats:’
Feels trapped by Fleance’s escape
‘I am cabin’d, cribb’d, confided, bound
in’
Apologises for appearing distracted
‘Now, good digestion wait on appetite,
And health on both’
LADY MACBETH
Wants her husband to appear in
charge ‘Pronounce it for me, sir’
Worried not paying guests enough
attention.
‘My royal lord, / You do not give the
cheer’

Thinks Banquo is sat at the table
‘The table’s full’
Is suspicious of his guests
‘Which of you have done this?’
Appears to be going mad to the lords
as shown by the exclamation marks
and questions
‘Prithee, see there! behold! look! lo!
how say you?’
Feels guilt for his actions
‘murders have been perform’d / Too
terrible for the ear’
Tries to reassure guests that he is
merely ill
‘my most worthy friends, / I have a
strange infirmity’
Is desperate for the ghost to leave
‘Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth
hide thee!
Pleads with the ghost to leave him
alone.
‘Hence, horrible shadow! Unreal
mockery, hence!’
Relieved when ghost vanishes
‘I am a man again’
Cannot believe his wife can act
normally when he has been so scared.
‘and keep the natural ruby of your
cheeks, / When mine is blanched with
fear’
Appears to regret his actions.
‘They say, blood will have blood’
Is going to return to the witches to hear
what they have to say.
‘And betimes I will to the weird sisters:
More shall they speak’
Lady Macbeth tries to excuse her
husband’s behaviour
‘my lord is often thus, / And hath been
from his youth…he will be well again’
Again, tells off her husband for his
behaviour
‘Fie, for shame!’
Tries to convince the lords that
Macbeth frequently behaves this way
‘Think of this, good peers, / But as a
thing of custom’
Appears concerned over her husband’s
behaviour.
‘I pray you, speak not; he grows worse
and worse’
Tells her husband he is merely tired
‘You lack the season of all natures,
sleep’

• the way other characters react to them
MACBETH
Formal response by guests
‘Thanks to your majesty’
Lennox keen to please the king
‘May’t please your highness sit’
Ross doesn’t want Macbeth to worry
about Banquo (not knowing of
Banquo’s murder) and wants the king
to enjoy the company present.
‘Please’t your highness / To grace us
with your royal company’
Lords worried they have offended the
king and are uncertain of what Macbeth
is talking about.
‘What, my good lord?’
Concerned Macbeth has become ill
‘his highness is not well’
Lords want to reassure Macbeth they
understand
‘Our duties, and the pledge’
Ross wants to know more of what
Macbeth is talking about.
‘What sights, my lord?’
Polite even at end of evening
‘and better health / Attend his majesty!’
LADY MACBETH
• what makes the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth so important.
MACBETH
Suggests to Lords the closeness to his
wife by asking her to formally begin the
evening.
‘We will require her welcome’
Reassures wife that all will be well
‘See, they encounter thee with their
hearts’ thanks.
Treats his wife as an equal and speaks
openly to her
‘Ay, and a bold one,’
LADY MACBETH
Plays the generous hostess to her
husband – appears to guests as
though she does as she is told
‘Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our
friends’
Loves husband and doesn’t want lords
to be suspicious of Macbeth’s
behaviour
Tells off her husband and wants to
know what is wrong with him
‘Are you a man?’
Again chastises her husband for being
silly and tries to bring him back to
reality
‘This is the very painting of your fear:’
‘Shame itself!’

Shows togetherness with wife – use of
‘We’
‘Come, we’ll to sleep’
‘We are yet but young in deed.’
‘You look but on a stool.’
Tries to reassure her husband
‘My worthy lord’
Shows her strength in the relationship
by telling off her husband.
‘You have displaced the mirth, broke
the good meeting, with most admired
disorder’
Act 3 sc 4
Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants:
The first stage direction, "A banquet prepared " (3.4.1, s.d.), is important. To prepare a
banquet, servants would bring in tables, stools, dishes, cutlery, cups, food, and drink.
This hustle and bustle makes it seem like a good time is going to be had by all. Macbeth
certainly seems in the mood. He welcomes everyone at once, saying, "You know your
own degrees; sit down. At first / And last the hearty welcome" (3.4.1-2). The "degrees"
of the guests are their social ranks. Normally, each guest would receive an individual
greeting and then be escorted to his seat, with the highest ranking person sitting closest
to the king, and the next highest the next closest, etc. Macbeth tells them that they know
where they should sit, and welcomes everyone at once. He will "play the humble host"
(3.4.4), showing how friendly and down-to-earth he is, even though he is now the king.
First Murderer appears at the door:
Just as Macbeth is taking his place among all of his loving subjects, he sees First
Murderer come to the door with blood on his face. Not wanting anyone else to see the
bloody man, Macbeth jumps up and hurries to the door. As he goes, he tells his guests
that in a minute "we'll drink a measure / The table round" (3.4.11-12).
Macbeth whispers with the murderer at the door. (Of course we can hear what they say,
but Macbeth's guests can't.) First Murderer says that the blood on his face is Banquo's.
In reply, Macbeth makes a cruel joke, saying that it's better for the blood to be on the
outside of the murderer than on the inside of Banquo: "'Tis better thee without than he
within" (3.4.14). Despite his disappointment that Fleance escaped with his life, there's
nothing more to be done in this matter, so Macbeth tells First Murderer to leave. Just at
this moment Lady Macbeth comes with some advice for her husband. She is afraid that
Macbeth's behaviour — standing at the door and apparently saying nothing — will
make the guests feel unwelcome. She tells him, "The feast is sold / That is not often
vouch'd, while 'tis a-making, / 'Tis given with welcome" (3.4.32-34). She means that a
host makes his guests feel welcome by often inviting them to eat and drink freely. If a
feast is not thus "vouch'd," it's no better than a meal that is "sold" at an inn. She goes on
to say that if a person just wants to eat, the best place to do that is at home. Away from

home, the most important thing for a guest is to be treated like a guest. This again is
Lady Macbeth appearing to take charge of her husband’s behaviour.
Enter the Ghost of Banquo and sits in Macbeth's place.
Taking his wife's advice to heart, which again emphasises the trust he has in her,
Macbeth returns to his guests, wishing them good digestion, good appetite, and good
health. As he is doing so, the last stool is take by an uninvited guest — the Ghost of
Banquo.
Macbeth is so busy playing the good host that he doesn't notice the ghost. No one else
sees the ghost, either, because it's invisible to everyone except Macbeth. Ironically,
Macbeth now chooses to comment about Banquo's absence from the banquet. He says,
"Here had we now our country's honour roof'd, / Were the graced person of our Banquo
present / Who may I rather challenge for unkindness / Than pity for mischance!"
(3.4.39-42). If you "roof" an honour, you put the top on it. Macbeth is literally praising
Banquo to the skies, but he also takes care to mention that he's sure that Banquo is
absent because of Banquo's own "unkindness," not because of any "mischance" that
could have happened to him. Ross agrees that Banquo should have kept his promise to
come to the banquet, then invites Macbeth to sit among them. This is exactly the sort of
thing that Macbeth wants; he hopes to be seen by the thanes as not only their king, but
their friend. He starts towards the table, then sees that there's no empty stool. He can't
find a place for himself and says, "The table's full" (3.4.45).
It takes Macbeth a moment before he sees why the table is full. When Lennox points to
the empty place, Macbeth asks where it is, looks harder, and sees the bloody figure of
Banquo's Ghost. At first Macbeth thinks it might be some sort of ghastly joke, and asks,
"Which of you have done this?" (3.4.48), but no one knows what he's talking about.
Then Macbeth speaks to the ghost, saying "Thou canst not say I did it: never shake /
Thy gory locks at me" (3.4.50). The ghost's "locks" of hair are "gory" because — as
First Murderer told Macbeth — Banquo died with twenty gashes on his head.
At this point Ross thinks it best if they all just go away and leave Macbeth alone, but
Lady Macbeth covers for her husband – again, emphasising the strength she appears to
bring to the relationship. She asks everyone to stay seated, and explains that Macbeth is
often like this, and has been ever since he was young. He'll recover in a moment, she
says, but if they stare at him, it will only make him worse, so they should just eat and
pretend that nothing has happened.
The guests do as they are told, and Lady Macbeth takes her husband aside. As she did
early in the play, Lady Macbeth challenges her husband's manhood. The first thing out
of her mouth is the insulting question, "Are you a man?" (3.4.57). Macbeth answers that
he's not only man, he's a bold man who can look at things that might frighten the devil.
His wife is not impressed. She exclaims sarcastically, "O proper stuff!" Then she tells
him that "This is the very painting of your fear: / This is the air-drawn dagger which,
you said, / Led you to Duncan" (3.4.59-62). She also tells him that he's making
ridiculous faces, so that he reminds her of a woman telling a scary story that she heard

from her grandmother. His fear is shameful because, "When all's done, / You look but
on a stool" (3.4.66-67).
Of course, where Lady Macbeth sees a stool, Macbeth sees the Ghost of Banquo. He
tells her to "see" for herself, to "behold," to "look." As Macbeth speaks, the ghost nods
at him, and he challenges the ghost to speak up: "Why, what care I? If thou canst nod,
speak too" (3.4.69). Of course, the ghost does not speak, but Macbeth does, saying "If
charnel-houses and our graves must send / Those that we bury back, our monuments /
Shall be the maws of kites" (3.4.70-72). "Monuments," like "charnel-houses" and
"graves," are the places where the dead belong. "Kites" are hawks, and their "maws" are
their entire eating apparatuses — beaks, gullets, and stomachs. An ancient fear was that
a person who was not properly buried would have his bones picked clean by birds.
Macbeth thinks that the dead ought to stay where they belong; if the graves are going to
send the bodies back, the kites, with their maws full of human flesh, are going to be the
only real graves. In short, Macbeth is describing the horror that he himself has created.
He wanted Banquo killed away from the castle, in the dark, out of sight. That was done,
but the body was left in a ditch, and now it has come back to show Macbeth the truth of
what he has done.
As Macbeth is saying this, the Ghost of Banquo exits. (We don't know if the Ghost is
supposed to suddenly vanish, or just walk out. Shakespeare doesn't provide a stage
direction.) Lady Macbeth continues her insult her husband, but Macbeth is sure he saw
what he saw. He even tries to explain that it's not his fault that the Ghost showed up. He
says that men have been killing men for a long time, since before there were even laws
against it: "Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time, / Ere human statute purged
the gentle weal" (3.4.74-75). It's a natural thing to shed blood; what's not natural is that
now the dead "rise again, / With twenty mortal murders on their crowns, / And push us
from our stools" (3.4.81).
Having said this, Macbeth seems to calm down. At the same time, his wife changes her
tune. Instead of telling him again that he's not a real man, she points out that his guests
need him to come back to the banquet. This suggests to the audience that she knows
how far to push her husband but also recognises there are times to leave him alone.
Hearing this, he returns to his guests, telling them that they shouldn't wonder at what
they've just seen. (They've haven't seen the Ghost, only Macbeth making faces and
talking to the stool.) Not to worry, Macbeth says. He happens to have a "strange
infirmity, which is nothing / To those that know me" (3.4.85-86). Now he returns to his
role as genial host. He calls for wine and proposes a toast to "the general joy o' the
whole table, / And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss" (3.4.88-89). But as
Macbeth reaches this height of hypocrisy, the Ghost returns.
This time Macbeth shows he's a real man. This time his wife won't be able to accuse
him of being a fearful girl. As soon as the Ghost appears, Macbeth tries to drive it away
with words: "Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! / Thy bones are
marrowless, thy blood is cold; / Thou hast no speculation in those eyes" (3.4.92-95)
"Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee! / Thy bones are marrowless, thy

lood is cold; / Thou hast no speculation in those eyes" (3.4.92-95). "Speculation" is the
ability to see. Macbeth is making sure that the Ghost knows that it belongs in the grave
because it is very, very dead. Lady Macbeth tries to tell the guests that her husband
does this all the time. It doesn't mean anything; it just spoils the banquet.
But Macbeth doesn't care about the guests or the banquet. He is determined to face
down the Ghost. He tells it that he dares to do anything a man can do. He would not
tremble if the Ghost should take the shape of a terrible beast. "Or be alive again, / And
dare me to the desert with thy sword; / If trembling I inhabit then, protest me / The baby
of a girl" (3.4.102-105). A "desert" doesn't have to have sand in it; it's just any deserted
place where they could be alone and fight man to man. "Protest" means "proclaim," and
"if trembling I inhabit" means "if I live inside a trembling body." Macbeth is daring the
Ghost to come alive and fight. If it does, and Macbeth shows fear, then it can tell the
world that Macbeth is a coward.
Finally, Macbeth's defiance works. Again he tells the Ghost to go away, and it goes.
Using the word "so" as we do when we say "so much for that," Macbeth expresses his
satisfaction and asks his guests to stay seated: "Why, so: being gone, / I am a man
again. Pray you, sit still" (3.4.106-107). But it's too late. His wife tells him that he has
"displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting, / With most admired disorder" (3.4.108-
109). "Admired" does not mean "admirable," but "amazing" or "obvious." She means
that after all they have seen, his guests are not going to be in any mood to go on with
the banquet.
Macbeth tries to justify himself. He asks his wife (and perhaps his guests) "Can such
things be, / And overcome us like a summer's cloud, / Without our special wonder?"
(3.4.109-111). "Overcome" means "come over," and a "summer's cloud" is something
that can come over us very quickly. As for the word "us," Macbeth is entitled to use it
because he is king, but it seems that he also means that anyone — all of us — would
react as he did. He goes on to say that he's starting to question himself because "you can
behold such sights, / And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, / When mine is
blanched with fear" (3.4.113-115).
Macbeth thinks that the others have seen the Ghost, too. They have not, but when Ross
asks Macbeth what he's seen, that's one question too many for Lady Macbeth. She
doesn't know what her husband thought he was seeing, but whatever it was, she doesn't
want him talking about it. She quickly gets rid of the guests, telling them that if they
question Macbeth, it will only make him worse.
Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth:
As Lady Macbeth says a hasty goodbye to the guests, Macbeth seems not to notice or
care about anything except his own thoughts. He mutters to himself that "they say,
blood will have blood" (3.4.121). The saying means that the blood of a murder victim
will seek out the blood of his killer, and so a murder will always be discovered.
Macbeth knows that stones have moved, trees have spoken, birds have told secrets. All
of these things have "brought forth / The secret'st man of blood" (3.4.124-125).

Macbeth himself is a secret man of blood, and the bloody Ghost confronted him. His
guilt was almost "brought forth" in front of his guests. None of this makes him feel
remorse, or anything but a determination to see things through to the bitter end. He
immediately starts thinking of what must be done next, and asks his wife what she
thinks of the fact that Macduff has refused to come to their banquet. She asks if he has
sent for Macduff, to get an explanation. He answers that he will send for him, and
besides, "There's not a one of them but in his house / I keep a servant fee'd" (3.4130-
131). A "servant fee'd" is a spy, and "them" almost certainly refers to his banquet guests
and all the other noblemen who are supposed to be his loyal subjects. He trusts no one.
In addition to dealing with Macduff, Macbeth will speak again with the witches:
More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good,
All causes shall give way: I am in blood
Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er:
Strange things I have in head, that will to hand;
Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd. (3.4.133-139)
He knows that the witches are "the worst means," and he expects they will tell him "the
worst" that can happen to him, but he's going to speak to them anyway, because his
"own good" is the only thing he cares about. He is in the middle of a river of blood, and
he might as well go over to the other side. That means that he will have to do "strange"
(and bloody) things right away, before he has "scanned" them. This is implies that if he
did scan them, look at them, think about them, he might not do them. All in all, he
doesn't seem to have much hope of happiness from doing the evil he feels he must do.
Now, at the very end of the scene, Lady Macbeth seems to be in a gentler mood. She
tells her husband that he needs to sleep. He replies, "Come, we'll to sleep. My strange
and self-abuse / Is the initiate fear that wants hard use: / We are yet but young in deed"
(3.4.141-143). Without changing his mind about what he's going to do, he's trying to
put the best face on things. His "strange and self-abuse" is his reaction to the Ghost of
Banquo, but now he sees that it was only the result of beginner's nerves, "intiate fear."
That fear can be cured by "hard use," by doing more, by wading more deeply into the
river of blood.
[There's an unconscious irony in Macbeth's final statement. He has killed King Duncan,
his grooms, and Banquo, so he is hardly "young in deed," but he believes that more
such deeds will solve his problems.