Third Murderer's Identity
When Macbeth enlists the help of two murderers to kill his good buddy Banquo and Banquo’s son Fleance while the two are out on a leisurely ride, it seems suspicious that a third murderer shows up at their exact hiding position right before Banquo passes by. The audience is never shown an interaction between Macbeth and this third murderer, so his sudden appearance and claim to be sent by Macbeth is questionable. This third murderer’s identity is never confirmed, but evidence from past and present scenes makes it possible to narrow down our list of suspects.
When Macbeth enlists the help of two murderers to kill his good buddy Banquo and Banquo’s son Fleance while the two are out on a leisurely ride, it seems suspicious that a third murderer shows up at their exact hiding position right before Banquo passes by. The audience is never shown an interaction between Macbeth and this third murderer, so his sudden appearance and claim to be sent by Macbeth is questionable. This third murderer’s identity is never confirmed, but evidence from past and present scenes makes it possible to narrow down our list of suspects.
This third murderer is introduced in Banquo's murder scene, but the play’s very next scene begins during the banquet Macbeth is holding in honour of Banquo. This allows us to rule out any of the characters in attendance, because the murderer comes in to report almost immediately after Banquo’s death. When Macbeth speaks with the murderer, he says, “There’s blood upon thy face.” (III.iv.13-14), to which the murderer replies, “’Tis Banquo’s then.” (III.iv.15) This means the murderer hasn’t washed or even wiped off his face since the murder, implying that he went straight to Macbeth’s castle directly after the murder took place. If the third murderer was someone attending the banquet, they would’ve arrived around the same time as the murderer that reports to Macbeth, and their late arrival would’ve been noted in the text. None of those attending Macbeth’s party could’ve been present at the murder, meaning miscellaneous lords and attendants, Lennox, Ross, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself are innocent(ish). The third murderer would have to be a character whose whereabouts were unknown or unspecified at the time of Banquo’s murder.
Setting aside the possibility of the third murderer being someone Macbeth sent, neither he nor Lady Macbeth could've played a role in this third murderer's appearance. Besides the fact that they were both present at the banquet, the murderers' reactions to either Macbeth or Lady Macbeth would've been different to how they reacted to the third murderer. Before the murder, one of the murderers says, "The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day." (III.iii.7), meaning there was still a bit of light given off by the sun at this time. This means that if Macbeth himself was the third murderer, he'd likely be recognized by the murderers since they'd spoken to each other earlier, and they would've reacted differently to his presence. Lady Macbeth couldn't have gone herself because, in this patriarchal time period, a female claiming to be a murderer would’ve caused more commotion amongst the other two male murderers. Anyways, in the previous scenes, Macbeth wouldn’t even tell his wife what his plans were. When she asks about his plans on the topic of Banquo because he's obviously going to do something stupid, Macbeth responds, “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,/Till thou applaud the deed.” (III.ii.50-51.) Since he’d withheld the information, Lady Macbeth wouldn’t have known where or when to show up if she went on her own. This also means that even if she wanted to, she couldn’t have sent anyone on her behalf to help her husband or to meddle in his affairs, as she wouldn’t know when or where to send them. The third murderer would’ve had to appear male, and been someone the other two murderers could not recognize while also knowing where to be and at what time.
Most of the remaining characters are easier to sort through. Macduff is in another castle, as are Malcolm and Donalbain, and we aren’t made aware of any reason they'd to return to Macbeth’s. None of these three are shown to be closely trusted by Macbeth, so they wouldn’t be included in or trusted with knowledge of his murder plot. If they were there for their own purposes or by chance, they wouldn’t have known to reply, “Macbeth.” (III.iii.2), which the third murderer replies when asked by the others about who sent him. In the very least, these three would not have allowed their friendly fellow thane, Banquo, to be killed. The third murderer had to be someone who understood what was going on in the situation, but didn’t care about doing the right thing and saving Banquo’s life.
Finally, we can get to the the actual question; what’s this guy’s identity? So far, it’s clear that the third murderer wasn’t Lennox, Ross, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth or anyone sent by her, Macduff, Malcolm or Donalbain. There aren’t many prominent characters left, and it obviously wasn’t Banquo or Fleance, so it’s likely a servant or another murderer sent by Macbeth.
Unless it isn’t.
Why would Macbeth send another murderer? Did he have second thoughts about the two murderers’ chances against Banquo and Fleance and wanted to supply reinforcements? Well, it’s possible, but the most likely answer is that he hadn’t sent anyone at all.
Someone else did.
What we know about this third murderer so far is that they must appear male and have no previously known interactions or relationships with the other two murderers. If they weren’t doing Macbeth’s bidding, this character would’ve needed another way to know about Macbeth’s plan. This third person would’ve needed to conveniently allow Fleance, Banquo’s prophesied heir-to-the-throne son, to escape, but not care about Banquo’s life.
This situation has the witches’ throuple-obsessed, grubby old lady hands all over it.
The witches, with their vague but accurate knowledge of fates and prophecies, would’ve known about Macbeth’s plan and had more than enough reason to play a role in allowing Fleance to escape but Banquo to die. The third murderer appears in front of the other murderers just before Banquo and Fleance pass by, which is almost eerily perfect timing, and this third murderer creates yet another three, which leans on the too-convenient side of coincidental. While writing this, I realized that the third murderer is only present in the third scene of the third act, which gives us another three times three. At this point I hope I’m wrong just because this is getting ridiculous, I’m done with the threes, Shakespeare needs to take a hecking break.
Do you think this third murderer was sent by the witches, or was a witch in disguise? Or was it just some average joe murderer sent by Macbeth? Could it possibly be the attendant who interacted with the two murderers in the first scene of act three, who could’ve overheard the plan and, although being too weak to fight or kill the murderers, tried to prevent his master’s evil plot and managed to help Fleance escape? That sounds better, right?
Please debunk this theory, I hate these witches. - Alyssa Mozzoni
Comment on another posting: I hadn't even considered Hecate as an option prior to reading Zaina's blog. If Hecate has confirmed powers of shapeshifting and is in cohorts with the witches, it makes perfect sense that she'd be the third murderer. My only issue with this is the possibility that Hecate's appearence in the play wasn't written by Shakespeare. Some theories speculate that a man named Thomas Middleton wrote the character of Hecate into the play. Of course, it's unknown how much Middleton edited Shakespeare's Macbeth, so it's possible he added the third murderer himself and even inteded for it to be Hecate in disguise. Taking into consideration that the play isn't in it's original form, it's even more difficult to discern the identity of the third murderer, but the alteration could prove Hecate really was meddling in Banquo's murder.
***used my own evidence, but the witch idea was originally Viviana's so creds to her***
Comment on another posting: I hadn't even considered Hecate as an option prior to reading Zaina's blog. If Hecate has confirmed powers of shapeshifting and is in cohorts with the witches, it makes perfect sense that she'd be the third murderer. My only issue with this is the possibility that Hecate's appearence in the play wasn't written by Shakespeare. Some theories speculate that a man named Thomas Middleton wrote the character of Hecate into the play. Of course, it's unknown how much Middleton edited Shakespeare's Macbeth, so it's possible he added the third murderer himself and even inteded for it to be Hecate in disguise. Taking into consideration that the play isn't in it's original form, it's even more difficult to discern the identity of the third murderer, but the alteration could prove Hecate really was meddling in Banquo's murder.
***used my own evidence, but the witch idea was originally Viviana's so creds to her***
