Act 3 of Macbeth shows a new king who cannot feel safe: he has Banquo murdered to protect his crown, lets Banquo’s son escape, and then watches Banquo keep his promise to attend the royal feast, as a ghost.
This summary takes Act 3 scene by scene, from Banquo’s suspicions to the first plans to overthrow Macbeth. Each scene covers what happens, the key lines, and why it matters for the rest of the play. For the whole story, see our full guide to Macbeth. For what came before, see our Act 2 summary, and for everyone who appears here, see our guide to the Macbeth characters.
At a Glance
Here is Act 3 of Macbeth in brief.
Act 3, Scene 1: The Plot Against Banquo
Macbeth is now king, and the scene opens with the one man who has guessed how he got there.
Alone at the palace, Banquo reflects: “Thou hast it now: king, Cawdor, Glamis, all, / As the weird women promised, and, I fear, / Thou play’dst most foully for’t.” But the witches also promised that his own descendants would be kings, and he allows himself to hope. Then Macbeth enters as king, with his queen and court, and calls Banquo “our chief guest.” He asks whether Banquo is riding out that afternoon, how far, and whether Fleance goes with him, and insists that he return for the evening feast: “Fail not our feast.” Banquo answers, “My lord, I will not.”
Alone, Macbeth reveals his fear: “To be thus is nothing; / But to be safely thus.” The witches gave him “a fruitless crown” and promised the future to Banquo’s line, which means he has damned his soul only to make Banquo’s children kings. He has already summoned two murderers. He persuades them that Banquo is the cause of their misfortunes and tells them to kill Fleance too, who “must embrace the fate / Of that dark hour.” As they leave, he says: “Banquo, thy soul’s flight, / If it find heaven, must find it out to-night.” Our guide to Macbeth’s soliloquies reads his speech in full.
Act 3, Scene 2: A Mind Full of Scorpions
Lady Macbeth, alone for a moment, admits that the crown has not brought what she hoped for.
“Nought’s had, all’s spent, / Where our desire is got without content,” she says: they have spent everything and gained nothing. But when Macbeth enters, she scolds him for brooding: “what’s done is done.” He is far from done. “We have scotch’d the snake, not kill’d it,” he replies; their enemies are wounded but alive. He envies Duncan, who at least sleeps peacefully in his grave. “O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife! / Thou know’st that Banquo, and his Fleance, lives.”
He hints that a “deed of dreadful note” will be done before nightfall, but refuses to tell her what: “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed.” In Act 1, she made the plan and he followed. Now he plans alone and keeps her out of it.
Act 3, Scene 3: The Murder of Banquo
At dusk, in a park near the palace, the two murderers are joined by a third, sent by Macbeth.
The other two are suspicious of the newcomer but accept him, since he knows their orders exactly. The play never says who he is. They hear horses, and Banquo and Fleance approach on foot with a torch. Banquo remarks on the weather: “It will be rain to-night.” “Let it come down,” answers the first murderer, and they attack.
Banquo’s last words are for his son: “O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly! / Thou mayst revenge.” The torch goes out, and in the dark Fleance escapes. “There’s but one down; the son is fled,” says the third murderer. They have lost “Best half of our affair,” since the son was the one who carried the prophecy.
Act 3, Scene 4: The Banquet and the Ghost
The central scene of the play is a royal feast that falls apart.
As the lords sit down, the first murderer appears at the door with blood on his face. “My lord, his throat is cut,” he reports of Banquo. Then comes the bad news: Fleance has escaped. “Then comes my fit again,” says Macbeth. With both dead he would have been secure, but now he is “cabin’d, cribb’d, confined, bound in / To saucy doubts and fears.”
He returns to his guests and, unaware of what has entered the room, says the whole nobility of Scotland would be gathered under his roof “Were the graced person of our Banquo present.” Ross replies that Banquo’s absence “Lays blame upon his promise.” They invite Macbeth to sit, but his place is taken: the ghost of Banquo, visible only to him, is sitting in it. Macbeth cries out, “Thou canst not say I did it: never shake / Thy gory locks at me.” Lady Macbeth covers for him, telling the lords he has had fits since youth, and whispers to him fiercely: “Are you a man?” This, she says, is just like the “air-drawn dagger” he saw before.
The ghost vanishes, and Macbeth recovers. He calls for wine and makes a toast “to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss; / Would he were here!” The ghost returns, and Macbeth breaks down completely. Lady Macbeth dismisses the guests in a hurry: “Stand not upon the order of your going, / But go at once.”
Alone with his wife, Macbeth is shaken but already planning: “It will have blood; they say, blood will have blood.” Macduff refused to come to the feast, and Macbeth keeps a paid spy in every noble house. Tomorrow he will seek out the witches, to know “By the worst means, the worst.” He sees no way back: “I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” His wife can only say, “You lack the season of all natures, sleep.”
Act 3, Scene 5: Hecate
On the heath, the three witches meet Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, who is angry with them.
How dared they “trade and traffic with Macbeth / In riddles and affairs of death” without her? Worse, they did it for a “wayward son” who cares only for his own ends. To make amends, they must meet her in the morning at the pit of Acheron, where Macbeth will come to learn his future. Hecate will prepare magic illusions that lead him to ruin by making him feel safe: “And you all know, security / Is mortals’ chiefest enemy.”
“Security” here means overconfidence. The scene sets up the prophecies of Act 4 as a deliberate trap. Many scholars believe the Hecate passages were added to the play by Thomas Middleton, since the songs cued in them also appear in his play The Witch, and some productions cut the scene.
Act 3, Scene 6: Scotland Turns
The act ends with two Scottish nobles saying, carefully, what many now think.
Lennox reviews the recent deaths in a speech full of irony: “Things have been strangely borne.” Macbeth pitied Duncan, but only after he was dead. Banquo “walk’d too late,” and since Fleance fled, you could say Fleance killed him. How it grieved Macbeth that Duncan’s sons killed their father, and how wisely he killed the servants, since it would have angered anyone to hear them deny it. Every line means the opposite of what it says.
The lord brings news. Malcolm lives at the English court, welcomed by “the most pious Edward,” and Macduff has gone there to ask the English king for an army under Siward. Macbeth sent for Macduff and was flatly refused, and he is now preparing for war. Lennox, openly calling Macbeth a tyrant now, prays for Macduff’s success. For the first time, the play shows an alliance forming against Macbeth.
A Closer Reading: Banquo Keeps His Promise
Macbeth asks Banquo to come to the feast, Banquo promises he will, and the rest of the act makes good on that promise in the worst possible way.
The exchange in Scene 1 is brief: “Fail not our feast.” “My lord, I will not.” Macbeth is only checking that Banquo will be out riding at dusk, so the murderers can find him. But the words are a promise, and at the feast the play keeps pointing back to it. Ross says Banquo’s absence “Lays blame upon his promise.” Macbeth, putting on a show, twice wishes aloud that Banquo were there, and each time Banquo is: first seated in Macbeth’s own place, then again after the toast, “Would he were here!”
The ghost is the one guest at the feast who does not pretend. Everyone else performs: Macbeth plays the grieving friend, his wife plays the calm hostess, the lords play loyal subjects. Only Banquo arrives as exactly what he is, a murdered man, and he says nothing at all. His silence is more damaging than any accusation, because it forces Macbeth to accuse himself in front of the court: “Thou canst not say I did it.”
And the seat he takes matters. The witches promised the crown to Banquo’s descendants, not to Macbeth’s. The murder was meant to cancel that future, but Fleance escaped, and now Banquo sits in the king’s chair. Macbeth killed the man and failed to kill the prophecy. The feast he planned to show his power becomes the moment Scotland first sees its king come apart, and by the end of the act the nobles are already looking elsewhere. Our guide to the themes in Macbeth follows guilt and the supernatural through the whole play.
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about Act 3 of Macbeth, answered briefly.
What Happens in Act 3 of Macbeth?
Fearing the witches’ prophecy about Banquo’s descendants, Macbeth has Banquo murdered, but Banquo’s son Fleance escapes. At a royal feast, Banquo’s ghost appears to Macbeth, who breaks down in front of his guests. Hecate plans to trap Macbeth, and Macduff goes to England to raise an army against him.
Why Does Macbeth Kill Banquo?
The witches said Banquo’s descendants would be kings, so Macbeth fears that his own crown is “fruitless” and will pass to Banquo’s line. He also fears Banquo personally, as the one man who suspects him.
Who Is the Third Murderer?
The play never says. He tells the others that Macbeth sent him, and he seems to know the plan in detail. Readers and productions have suggested many identities, but the text leaves him unnamed.
Who Can See Banquo’s Ghost?
Only Macbeth, and the audience. The guests see their king shouting at an empty stool, which is why Lady Macbeth tells them he suffers from fits.
What Does “Blood Will Have Blood” Mean?
That murder demands more bloodshed in return. Macbeth says it after the ghost vanishes, fearing that his crimes will be revenged, and then resolves to keep killing, since he has waded too far into blood to turn back.
Related Reading
Three pages that take Macbeth further.