Third Murderer in Macbeth

The Third Murderer appears only in Act 3, Scene 3, where Macbeth’s plot to assassinate Banquo comes to its violent execution on the darkening heath. This character arrives without preamble or explanation, joining the First and Second Murderers who have already been hired and briefed. The First Murderer questions his arrival—“But who did bid thee join with us?”—and the Third answers simply, “Macbeth.” This cryptic addition suggests either that Macbeth sent a third operative at the last moment, or that one of the murderers themselves recruited him, but the text leaves the matter deliberately obscure. What matters is that the Third Murderer is present when the ambush unfolds, participating in the attack on Banquo and his son Fleance as the sun sets.

During the brief assault, the Third Murderer distinguishes himself by his practical efficiency and his awareness of the stakes. When he hears horses approaching, he observes that “the subject of our watch” is nearing—a clinical way of referring to their target. After Banquo falls, the Third Murderer notes that “There’s but one down; the son is fled,” recognizing immediately that the operation has failed in its crucial secondary objective. This acknowledgment of failure—that Fleance, whose death was as important as Banquo’s, has escaped into darkness—exposes the flaw in the plan and the cascade of paranoia and violence it will trigger in Macbeth. The Third Murderer’s presence underscores that even with overwhelming force, fate and chance can thwart the most carefully laid traps.

Though the Third Murderer speaks only six lines across a single scene, he embodies the play’s machinery of contract killing and the dehumanized efficiency of murder once ambition sets it in motion. He is not characterized by motive, personality, or moral struggle—he is simply a tool, interchangeable and disposable. His anonymity is the point. He exists to perform a function, to kill on command, and to vanish. In this, he mirrors the larger theme of Macbeth: once the first murder is committed, subsequent ones become almost mechanical, carried out by hired hands who ask no questions and expect no reward beyond payment. The Third Murderer is the face of a Scotland descending into casual bloodshed, where killing becomes so routine that even the killers themselves are forgettable.