Banquo

Banquo's function in the play is mainly as a foil to Macbeth. With Macbeth he is co-leader of Duncan's army against the rebel Macdonwald and the king of Norway. Like Macbeth he is an important member of the aristocracy, and he, too, meets the Witches who make prophecies concerning him. Macbeth and he therefore have enough in common to make their different reactions and responses to events important. We may first notice their different reactions to the Witches' prophecies. Macbeth regards them as "supernatural soliciting." But it is Banquo who reminds us that the devil tries to "Win us with honest trifles, to betray's/ In deepest consequence." And Banquo's caution is the proper response, not Macbeth's egotistic assumption of "supernatural soliciting." Second, we may notice the images of time and growth so frequently used by Banquo, which indicate his acceptance of God's order and which contrast with Macbeth's attempt to control time for his own purposes. Listen to Banquo: 

"If you can look into the seeds of time,/ And say which grain will grown and which will not . . ." (I. iii); "There if I grow, / The harvest is your own (I. iv); " . . . no jutty, frieze, / Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird / Hath made his pendent bed, and procreant cradle . . ." (I. vi); " . . . our time does call upon's" (III. i). 

And those are samplings. Third, Banquo is wary not only of supernatural temptation but also of human temptation. Macbeth falls not only for the lure of the Witches but also for the temptation offered by his wife. But when Macbeth says to Banquo, "If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis, / It shall make honour for you," Banquo indicates in his reply that he will be involved in no dirty work for worldly gain: "So I lose none [honour]/ In seeking to augment it [honour] . . . ."

More than a foil.

But while Banquo in large part serves in the play as a foil to Macbeth, he, unlike most of the other supporting characters, interests us in and of himself. For Banquo is ambitious, and the ambition pulls strongly on him. Although he is cautious of the temptation Macbeth may warily have put to him, he is, after all, willing to confer with Macbeth about augmenting his honour-as long as no dirty work is afoot. Banquo strongly wishes to rise, but he wishes to do so without foul play. And his wish for worldly gain is so strong that, though he is not consciously tempted, he may have been unconsciously tempted. At the beginning of Act II he says to Macbeth, 

"I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: / To you they have showed some truth." 

What did he dream about? Was it of a foul way of gaining his ambition? He had said earlier in the scene that he had had "cursed thoughts" in his sleep. His dreams, at any rate, show his powerful interest in what the Witches had forecast for him. Finally, although his soliloquy in Act III, Scene i, begins with a consideration of how Macbeth had attained the kingship, Banquo does not dwell on that subject long. Macbeth's acquisition of the crown only leads him to the thought of the truth of the Witches' prophecy to Macbeth and therefore to the possibility that their prophecy to him may also end in truth. But these revelations of Banquo's ambitious drives, while they make him more interesting to us in that they show him to be a man of conflicting motives, also accentuate his function as a foil to Macbeth. For like Macbeth, he is powerfully driven to worldly goals; but unlike Macbeth, he never confuses fair and foul. Also, no actor playing Banquo should forget what Macbeth says about him, for such an actor must show it in his bearing and in his pantomime. Banquo, says Macbeth, has a "dauntless temper of . . . mind" and a "wisdom that doth guide his valour / To act in safety." That is, Banquo is brave both physically and spiritually, and he has an intelligence that teaches his bravery to act with discretion.

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