Murderers in Macbeth

[JDI1]

In Macbeth, Shakespeare conveys to the reader that Macbeth appointed two
murderers to kill Banquo. When the murder is committed, three murderers
show up to kill Banquo.

Who is the third murderer and why?

Thank you so much.
-Dara

[darrell dobson]

Some people suggest and wonder if the third murderer is Macbeth himself. I
suggest it is not Macbeth for this main reason. Macbeth only begins seeing the
ghost of Banquo after the murderers report back to him at the banquet. If he
had been the third murderer, he would have known Banquo escaped before they
informed him, but he only became upset after their report.

So the answer is we don't kow the identity of the third murderer. We can
probably safely assume it was a servant that MAcbeth trusted more than the two
murderers who appear to be new to him.

[John Lunman]

For a radical interpetation..... how about one of the witches. It appear
obvious that the two murderers would have succeeded, had not the third
murderer struck out the light. This seems incredibly inept for a
professional fighter in a warrior based society. The witches however
want Fleance to escape... it fulfills their prophecy.

I saw this in a production once which brought a whole new light to the
witches and the play. They actively engaged in bringing Macbeth
down.....

John

[Diane Lindsay]

I once saw a production in which the third murderer was very obviously but
thinly "disguised", Macbeth himself. Well he was, after all.
Diane
JDI1 wrote in message <76k4d3$5fq$1...@news.monmouth.com>...

[GB Davidson]

Harold Goddard (in The Meaning of Shakespeare, Univ. of Chicago Press)
remarks:

"It is mainly (on the basis of the fact) that the news of Fleance's
escape came to MaBeth as a surprise that those who hold absurd the idea
that MacBeth was the Third Murderer rest their case... But others think
that the (speech MacBeth gives indicating his surprise) has the same
mark of insincerity combined with unconscious truth as (the speech) in
which MacBeth pretended to be surprised and horrified at the death of
Duncan."

Goddard states that he has found that "after allowing for a small
minority that remains in doubt, about half (of every audience) are
convinced that MacBeth was the 3rd Murder and the other half are either
unconvinced or frankly think the hypothesis far-fetched or absurd."

He concludes that what Shakesp. "wanted, evidently, was not to make a
bald ientification...but to produce precisely the effect which as a
matter of fact the text does produce on sensitive but unanalytic
readers, the feeling, namely, that there is something spectral and
strange about the 3rd Murderer....

"Whether present or absent in the flesh, it is here and now that
(Macbeth) steps through the door above which is written "Abandon all
hope, ye who enter." (Shakesp) must convince us that virtually, if not
literally, it is MacBeth who commits the murder. By letting us
unconsciously see things simultaneously from two angles, he creates, as
sight with two eyes does in the physcal world, the true illusion of
another dimension, in this case an illusion that annihilates space."