Banquo as a foil to Macbeth : Act 2 Flashcards
(11 cards)
foil
a character which juxtaposes another in order to reveal things about their personalities
banquo is a tool…
to explore man’s reaction to temptation
macbeth’s dishonest dual nature….
juxtaposes banquo’s
act 2 scene 1 - macbeth and the witches
‘I dream’d last night of the three weird sisters’
‘I dream’d last night of the three weird sisters’
- macbeth is still plagued by thoughts of the witches’ prophecies
- superstition is taking a hold of him and trespassing on his unconscious
act 2 scene 1 - banquo and the witches
‘I think not of them’
‘I think not of them’
banquo is honest, characterising him as moral in order to amplify macbeth’s dishonesty and deception
act 2 scene 1 - banquo claims that heaven’s…
‘candles are all out’
‘candles are all out’
- in reference to the lack of stars in the sky
- banquo seeks solace from heaven rather than trying to hide like macbeth - ‘stars hide your fires’
- motif of stars exposes macbeth and banquo as diametrically opposed in their aspirations
- macbeth wants to hide his malicious intentions from god yet banquo wants to confess his temptations to be free of them
what is banquo an important tool in?
characterising macbeth as a tragedy - it exposes that it is macbeth’s ambition of hamartia that drives his heinous acts because banquo, too, was subject to those temptations but actively chose to resist it
topic sentence of banquo as a foil to macbeth
- shakespeare constructs banquo as a foil to macbeth in order to hold a mirror up to macbeth’s flaws, banquo’s virtue exposes macbeth’s dishonesty, disproportionate ambition and susceptibility to temptation
- banquo’s almost ecclesiastical quality was a means through which shakespeare could appease James I as Banquo was one of his descendants
