Banquo, Macduff and Duncan

Duncan is a good, generous king who rewards loyalty. His weakness is that he trusts too easily. Of the traitor Cawdor he says ‘There's no art / To find the mind's construction in the face’ (Act 1 Scene 4): you can't read a man's mind from his face. Then Macbeth walks in, and Duncan trusts him too. This is dramatic irony.

Arriving at Macbeth's castle, he says ‘This castle hath a pleasant seat’ (Act 1 Scene 6), not knowing he will die there.

Even Macbeth admits Duncan has been a good king. Killing him is so unnatural that afterwards nature itself goes wrong: day turns dark, and Duncan's horses are said to eat each other.

Banquo hears the same prophecies as Macbeth but makes different choices, so he acts as Macbeth's foil.

He is wary of the witches from the start, warning that ‘The instruments of darkness tell us truths’ (Act 1 Scene 3) to trick us. He is tempted too, but prays against it: ‘Merciful powers, / Restrain in me the cursed thoughts’ (Act 2 Scene 1).

He suspects Macbeth: ‘I fear / Thou played'st most foully for 't’ (Act 3 Scene 1). Yet he says nothing, perhaps hoping his own prophecy will come true.

King James believed he was descended from Banquo, which may be why Shakespeare makes Banquo so noble.

Macduff discovers Duncan's body: ‘O horror, horror, horror!’ (Act 2 Scene 3). He does not go to Macbeth's coronation, which suggests he suspects him from the start.

He goes to England to persuade Malcolm to fight Macbeth, leaving his family behind. His wife complains that his flight was madness, and soon she and her children are murdered.

Macduff stands for loyalty to Scotland rather than to one man. He is willing to give up everything to save his country.

In Act 4 Scene 3, Ross tells Macduff that his wife and children have been murdered. Macduff is stunned: ‘He has no children. All my pretty ones?’ (Act 4 Scene 3). ‘He’ may mean Macbeth, who cannot know a father's pain, or Malcolm, who is too young to understand it.

When Malcolm tells him to fight it like a man, Macduff replies, ‘I shall do so, / But I must also feel it as a man’ (Act 4 Scene 3).

This gives a different idea of masculinity from Lady Macbeth's. For Macduff, a real man can feel grief and still be brave.

In the final battle, Macduff hunts Macbeth down: ‘Turn, hellhound, turn!’ (Act 5 Scene 8). Macbeth trusts the prophecy that no man ‘of woman born’ can harm him, until Macduff reveals he was ‘Untimely ripped’ (Act 5 Scene 8) from his mother. Macduff kills Macbeth and brings in his head.

Why Shakespeare uses these three: each is a contrast to Macbeth. Duncan is the good king Macbeth should have served, Banquo the man who resists temptation, and Macduff the loyal man who feels deeply and fights for his country.