Banquo's ghost is an interesting ghost. He apparently didn't show up at Macbeth's banquet for the food, because he didn't eat anything. He didn't even have a glass of wine. He's not bothering anybody but Macbeth, because nobody else can see him. So what is he doing there? What does he want?
The irony is that Banquo's ghost doesn't want anything. He's not like Shakespeare's other ghosts. He doesn't want revenge for being murdered, like the Ghost in Hamlet. He doesn't want Macbeth to "despair, and die!," like the eleven ghosts in Richard III. He doesn't want to tell Macbeth when he's going to die, like the Ghost of Caesar did to Brutus in Julius Caesar. And he didn't attend the banquet so he can intercede on Macbeth's behalf with the god Jupiter, like the four ghost relatives of Posthumus Leonatus in Cymbeline.
Banquo's ghost just shows up without an invitation, sits in Macbeth's chair, and waits to see what happens.
Banquo's ghost doesn't even say anything! All of Shakespeare's other ghosts say something, even if it's just a line or two to tell Richard III to "despair, and die!"
It's ironic, of course, that Banquo's ghost says nothing, but he doesn't need to say anything. He knows that all he has to do is show up at the banquet, and appear only to Macbeth—another irony—and Macbeth will go out of his mind, which he did. Then Macbeth will quite literally talk himself into his own death.
This is assuming, of course, that Banquo actually had anything to do with his ghost being at the banquet. The dead and bloody Banquo could simply be a manifestation of Macbeth's guilty conscience and overactive imagination.
If Banquo's ghost really wasn't there, then the irony is that Macbeth drove himself crazy, as a result of his overwhelming and unbearable regret, remorse, and guilt for having ordered the murder of his friend, Banquo.
After that, all Macduff really had to do was show up, destroy the last of Macbeth's illusions—that he couldn't be harmed by anyone not of woman borne—and Macbeth's reign of tyranny was over.
In Act 3, Scene 4, Shakespeare depicts the famous banquet scene by employing dramatic irony. Dramatic irony is a literary device which gives readers information about relevant things not known by most characters in the play. By providing the audience with the necessary knowledge about some fact or action, this device creates humor and suspense in the play. Readers can experience various emotions such as confusion, fear or hope because they do not know how other characters in the play will react when they do find out the information which readers already know. This makes the play more interesting and suspenseful.
In the famous banquet scene, only Macbeth and the audience can see the ghost of Banquo, which terrorizes Macbeth. His shock at seeing the ghost is not understood by anyone present at the banquet, and this makes the whole situation rather unusual:
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
Which thou dost glare with!
Of course, every guest at the banquet is astonished by Macbeth's reaction because they do not see the ghost. The role of the ghost is to show that Macbeth cannot kill without being tortured by his guilty conscience. This scene marks the beginning of Macbeth's descent into madness and death.
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