Quote Analysis

The Second Murderer speaks after Banquo has been killed but Fleance has escaped into the darkness, realizing their mission is only half complete.

The word "best" does cold arithmetic on murder: Fleance's escape matters more than Banquo's death because the prophecy promised Banquo's descendants would be kings. By quantifying assassination as an "affair" with a "best half," the murderer adopts the transactional language of business, yet his phrasing admits they've failed at the very outcome Macbeth hired them to secure. This single line encapsulates the play's central irony—Macbeth can kill the man but not the future.

Use this to argue that Shakespeare embeds dramatic irony in the murderers' own language—they recognize Fleance is the real target, which tells the audience that Macbeth's violence can't stop the prophecy, only delay it, making every murder he commits both effective and useless.