Discussion Topic
The Third Murderer in Macbeth
Summary:
The identity of the third murderer in Shakespeare's Macbeth remains a mystery, often interpreted differently over time. This character's role highlights Macbeth's paranoia and mistrust, as he hires an extra killer to ensure Banquo's murder. Some interpretations suggest Macbeth himself or Ross as the third murderer, while others see it as a dramatic device to clarify the scene's logistics. The third murderer underscores Macbeth's descent into madness and paranoia as he struggles to maintain power.
In Act 3, Scene 3 of Macbeth, who is the third murderer sent to kill Banquo?
The scene is rarely shown on stage, so Shakespeare wanted to leave it a mystery.
In Roman Polanski's film Macbeth, the third murderer is Ross. Polanski has him arrive late on the scene on horseback. As Fleance escapes on his horse, Ross draws his sword and is about to kill the boy, but Banquo shoots Ross' horse with an arrow. Banquo gets the ax to the back, but Ross is thrown from the horse and Fleance escapes.
I do like this interpretation, as Ross seems also complicit in Lady Macduff's murder. He in the scene preceding, warning hers to leave. Ross is omnipresent to all the murder and bloodshed in the play.
That is a question that has plagued Shakespeare fans for centuries. There is no clear reason for the third murderer and there is no previous indication that there should be a third. When
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That is a question that has plagued Shakespeare fans for centuries. There is no clear reason for the third murderer and there is no previous indication that there should be a third. WhenMacbeth hires the murderers in Act 3, sc. 1, there are only two. When the murderers meet at the place where they plan to encounter Banquo and Fleance, there are three. Looking carefully at the opening lines of that scene, we get the only clues to reason for the third man. The first murderer asks the third who asked him to be there. The third murderer says simply, "Macbeth." The second murderer then says that Macbeth didn't need to doubt them; they are trustworthy and they will do as they were hired to do. That brief exchange suggests that Macbeth, who is becoming increasingly paranoid, doesn't trust the killers he hired to kill someone he no longer trusts. Macbeth's guilty conscience and his paranoia are what allow him to see the ghost of Banquo in the following banquet scene. His paranoia is what sends Macbeth back to the Weird Sisters in Act 4, sc. 1. By the time we get to Act 5, we see that Macbeth has been driven nearly insane with paranoia as he tries to hang onto the throne in the face of all the odds against him. Macbeth most likely hired the third murderer to check up on the first two and this is done to show the audience Macbeth's increasing paranoia.
Why is there a third murderer in Macbeth?
The Third Murderer may have been introduced primarily to explain something the other two murderers apparently did not know. The First Murderer says
His horses go about.
He is wondering why Banquo and his son Fleance are approaching on foot when they have been out riding all day. The Third Murderer explains:
Almost a mile; but he does usually,
So all men do, from hence to th' palace gate
Make it their walk.
This line may have been written to explain to his audience why Banquo and Fleance are walking rather than riding their horses up to the palace. It would have been impossible to bring two horses onto Shakespeare's Elizabethan stage. And even if Shakespeare considered doing such a thing, it would have been extremely difficult for the three murderers to attack the mounted riders. If three men suddenly leaped at two men on horseback, the horses might rear up and create chaos on the stage.
An alternative Shakespeare might have considered would have been to have Banquo and his son murdered somehow offstage. But the playwright wanted the audience to see Banquo being murdered so that they would be sure he was dead and had to be a ghost when he appeared at Macbeth's coronation banquet. Otherwise, some members of the audience might get the idea that Banquo had somehow survived the assault and had made it to the banquet looking bloody and disheveled. Shakespeare even has the First Murderer appear at the banquet in Act III, Scene 4, to assure Macbeth that Banquo is truly dead.
FIRST MURDERER
My lord, his throat is cut:
That I did for him.