Murder Essay, Research Paper

LENNOX. Lennox is a political power-seeker, and we saw him on

stage every time we saw Duncan on stage. He is one of those people

who gravitates to power and gets as close to it as possible so that

he can feel it and share it as much as possible. Once Macbeth is

king, then Lennox is around him all the time, too. At the banquet

when Macbeth saw Banquo’s ghost, he was the one to invite Macbeth

to sit next to him. He was the one to have the last word even

when Lady Macbeth shouted for everyone to leave the room: “Better

health attend his majesty.” Macbeth brought Lennox in to a place

of great trust, as can be seen when Macbeth went to see the witches

again: he took Lennox with him. At the end of the play, when the

power changed sides, so did Macbeth. He was with the forces

fighting against Macbeth. Therefore, Lennox would do ANYTHING to

be in the glow of the power. In order to secure a better position

with Macbeth, he became the third murderer. Macbeth asked him to

go because he needed a warrior to make sure the job got done; he

could not trust the two men he had hired to kill the great warrior,

Banquo, without the help of another thane/warrior. Lennox was the

one for the job. Macbeth knew he would do anything to stay near

the power, and he took advantage of this.

Another take on Lennox as the third murderer has him as a spy

in Macbeth’s castle, loyal to the forces opposing Macbeth. Lennox had

been loyal to Duncan and ended up as one of the leaders of the

forces opposing Macbeth in the end of the play. In fact, it was Lennox

who knew where every soldier was, so he must have had the master

plan for the battle in his possession. (When the question was

asked in the end, “Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?” it

was Lennox who knew for certain that he was not. Lennox had a list

of all the gentry. A political power-seeker would not earn that

kind of position so quickly in the rebellion, so he must have

been against Macbeth all along. His negative opinion of Macbeth

was clearly expressed in Act III, scene vi, when he calls him a

“tyrant” and rails against him openly to the unnamed Lord. Macbeth

himself talks about how he has spies in every one else’s castle:

“There’s not a one of them but in his house/ I keep a servant feed”

(Act III, scene iv). Therefore, Lennox is a spy in Macbeth’s castle.

In the position of trust he has managed to obtain, he is sent out

at the last minute to help with the killing of Banquo. Although

he does not want to blow his cover, he cannot let Banquo die.

However, the light is extinguished, the two murderers set upon

Banquo immediately, killing him before Lennox can stop them, so

he does the best that he can by helping Fleance to escape. He

then returned to the banquet, where he would not have been missed.

He maintains his close link to Macbeth, but does not give him any

information that would help Macbeth. Note the fact that he does

not tell Macbeth about Macduff’s flight to England until his hand is

forced by the two or three riders who came by in Act IV to report

the information to Macbeth. The audience knows, though, that he

already knew this from the conversation he had earlier with the

unnamed Lord. He kept this information from Macbeth because he

was a spy.