After reading Shakespeare's Macbeth, give a detailed account of the banquet scene. What light does it throw on the characters of Macbeth and Lady...

The banquet scene in Shakespeare’s
Macbeth (3.4), which occurs shortly after Macbeth has secretly
arranged the murder of Banquo, is one of the most revealing scenes in the entire play,
especially for what it reveals about the personalities of Macbeth and his wife. Among
its revelations are the following:

• Macbeth opens
  the scene by referring hypocritically to proper rank (3.4.1). Ironically, of course, he
  has violated proper hierarchy by killing his own
  king.


• Macbeth plans to “play the humble host” (3.4.5), a
  phrase that implicitly reminds us of his own murderous pride and of his own earlier
  violation of the duties of a true host.


• Macbeth’s
  pleasure in Banquo’s death, expressed privately to one of the men who has killed him
  (3.4.15) again reveals his hypocrisy. Macbeth also reveals here a pleasure and humor
  about murder that show his moral degeneration
  (3.4.17).


• Immediately after taking sickening satisfaction
  in news of his former friend’s death, Macbeth is shaken and surprised to learn that his
  friend’s son has escaped being killed (3.4.21-25). His unstable emotions are thus
  revealed.


• Macbeth’s references to Banquo and Fleance as
  serpent-like and venomous ironically reflect on his own increasingly evil character
  (3.4.29-31).


• Lady Macbeth hypocritically praises
  courteous “ceremony” towards guests (3.4.36), despite having earlier provoked Macbeth to
  kill the king, the greatest guest they could possibly have
  had.


• Macbeth hypocritically praises Banquo publically
  (3.4.-40-43), even though he has just secretly joked about Banquo’s
  murder.


• Macbeth, shocked to see the ghost of Banquo
  (which no one else can see), immediately displays anger, suspiciousness, and paranoia
  (3.4.49).


• Speaking to the ghost of Banquo, Macbeth
  hypocritically denies his guilt for Banquo’s murder (3.4.50-51). His words also suggest
  terror at the sight of Banquo’s ghost.


• Lady Macbeth tries
  to “cover” for her husband, but her concern for him is, of course, also rooted in
  self-centered self-concern (3.4.53-53-58).


• Her abrupt
  question to her husband – “Are you a man?” (3.4.58) – can be read as expressing both
  power over him and fear of others; it is simultaneously a rebuke, an insult, a dig at
  his masculinity, and an unintentionally ironic reminder of his lack of common humanity.
  


• By accusing Macbeth of behaving like a woman
  (3.4.60-68), Lady Macbeth unintentionally reminds us that she herself rejects all the
  virtues traditionally associated with her own
  gender.


• Macbeth’s almost hysterical fear of Banquo’s
  ghost (3.4.68-73) greatly contrasts with the smug self-confidence he showed as the scene
  opened.


• Lady Macbeth’s references to “folly” and “shame”
  (3.4.73-75) call unintended attention to her own irrationality and
  shamelessness.


• Ironically, what Lady Macbeth perceives as
  her husband’s weakness is actually evidence that he still has some strength of
  conscience left, as when he refers to

readability="7">

. . . murders . . .
performed

Too terrible for the ear. 
(3.4.77-78)

• At the
  same time, Macbeth is less moved by his conscience than by his selflish but frustrated
  self-concern (3.4.78-83).

Obviously this
analysis could be even more detailed, but even an analysis of just the first half of the
scene shows how many different emotions and character traits Shakespeare manages to
reveal.