Banquo is a character to whom, perhaps, many people can relate. He is a general who, not unlike Macbeth, suffers from thoughts of self-service and ambition but who, unlike Macbeth, does not attempt to actualize those thoughts. This point he drives home when he declares "retain in me the cursed thoughts that nature gives way to in repose." Banquo, in other words, recognizes his dark nature but can restrain his actions with an enlightened view of morality and ethics. This dark nature Banquo later refers to as "naked frailties."

Each of us is ambitious to varying degrees and driven by a certain desire for aggrandizement and profit. However, these "naked frailties," to quote Banquo, we attempt to control and suppress, recognizing a higher obligation we each have to morality. This obligation may come in the form of respect to a deity, or it may be a rational subjugation of our primitive self to the communal whole—what Freud posited was society's suppression of the amoral id that drives us to seek chaos.