Read the passage from act 3, scene 1 of The Tragedy of Macbeth.Macbeth. Upon my head they plac’d a fruitless crown,And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,Thence to be wrench’d with an unlineal hand,No son of mine succeeding. If ’t be so,For Banquo’s issue have I fil’d my mind;For them the gracious Duncan have I murder’d;Put rancours in the vessel of my peaceOnly for them; and mine eternal jewelGiven to the common enemy of man,To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings!
Macbeth has committed murder and surrendered his peace and soul to secure the crown, but he believes the crown will ultimately pass to Banquo’s descendants rather than his own. That makes his actions bitterly ironic: he killed Duncan for a kingship that will benefit Banquo’s line. The correct choice is irony.
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