Macbeth Cinematic/Thematic Essay

Part One: (A) 1.5. 66-76: “O, never shall sun that morrow see! Your face, my thane, is a book where men may read strange matters. To beguile the time, look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue. Look the’ innocent flower but be the serpent under’t. He that’s coming must be provided for: and you shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch; which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.” -Lady Macbeth, Page 52

(B) In this part of the play, Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth to kill King Duncan and take over the throne so his prophecy can come true. She wants him to act as if he is a good, trustworthy man, so that the murder would be unexpected. Lady Macbeth is a conniving character, and has a very dominant role in her marriage. She knows that she can get Macbeth to do what she wants him to do if she pushes hard enough, especially if she questions his manhood like she does in another quotes. This shows that she is a controlling woman, who always has to have her way. It doesn’t seem to me like she truly loves Macbeth as much as a wife should, because if you loved somebody you wouldn’t push them to murder a king so you can be one. Personally, I am nothing like Lady Macbeth. I don’t desire power and I’m not very bossy, so I don’t like her character in the play.

    C) In the kitchen area is where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are during this part of the play. Lady Macbeth shows how scheming and dominant she is in this scene. There is intense conversation between the both of them, and it is being said with very powerful whispers. It’s completely silent besides their talking, and it puts all the focus on them which is a very good tool used by the director.
    (D) I think this is the first time I realized how much of a hold Lady Macbeth had on Macbeth. With every look in her eye, she was so intense that it’s almost understandable why Macbeth had listened to her every word. When I read Shakespeare, his words don’t mean as much to me because a lot of the vocabulary are words that I'm not used to. Seeing it on screen makes it easier to relate and understand the feelings that the characters are feeling at any given time.

Part Two: (A) 2.2, 39-42: “But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? I had most need of a blessing, and “Amen” stuck in my throat.” -Macbeth Page 80

    (B) This quote shows the distress of Macbeth after he kills King Duncan. He was never really fond of the idea of killing Duncan and most of the reason why he did was because of his wife. He believes himself to b a religious man, but after he murders Duncan, he has a lot of trouble coming to grips with what he had done. At this point, Macbeth did want power, but he wasn’t corrupted. He makes it clear to the audience with this quote that he does feel for what he did, and it seems as though he got caught up.
    C) In the film, as soon as Macbeth says this quote, you can tell by the tremble in his voice that he cannot believe what he has done, and he is clearly not okay with it. He feels dark, and the movie amplified his dark feelings with a dark setting. He and Lady Macbeth are in the dungeon area with only a sink and two knives. There is blood on the both of them, and all you can hear before they say anything is dipping water and sounds of air flow.
    (D) When I read this portion of the play, It didn’t mean as  much to me because I, personally am not a religious person so it didn’t really hit me. When I saw this and heard this in the film, I had a really different perspective on it. You could hear the tremble and shame in Macbeth’s voice as he said it. That’s a feeling that I think everybody can relate to. The feeling of disappointment in yourself for your actions, and knowing that there is no turning back from where you stand.

Part Three:  (A) 5.1, 32-33: “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. O, O, O!” –Lady Macbeth page 218

    (B) Lady Macbeth is starting to sleepwalk at night and it’s because her actions are starting to affect her in a negative way. You once saw a strong Lady Macbeth who barked orders to her husband and wanted nothing more than Duncan to be dead so her husband could rule. Now, we see that even a woman who is so tough on the exterior is having some internal problems with the situation that she might not even be able to realize.

C) In the film, this is a very dark looking scene. The darkness goes along with what Lady Macbeth is feeling while she sleepwalks. She scrubs her hands in a single sink with such rigor that you can tell she is definitely starting to go a little crazy from her actions. As she starts to cream and cry, the camera becomes a close up and shows only her facial expression and the hands that she so desperately wants clean.

(D) As much as in the beginning I thought Lady Macbeth to be this incredibly dominant woman who wasn’t bothered by what she had done, this scene proved to me that even for her the pressure was too much. I think that before watching the film, I felt the same as I did when I watched it, but watching it made me really understand how intense the situation was.

Part Four: (A) 5.5, 10-16: “I have almost forgot the taste of fears. The time has been, my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in ‘t. I have supped full with horrors; direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts cannot once start me.”  -Macbeth Page 236

    (B) In this part of the play, Macbeth reflects on himself and how things have changed for him. He says he used to be afraid of smaller things, but recently he has had such a fair share of horror that he had gotten used to it. I think this shows how his murder of Duncan, and his commands to get rid of those who don’t believe in his rules and follow his orders have really made him a different person. This is a good example of how power can corrupt somebody no matter what they used to be like.
    C) The only thing you can hear in the background is sounds of gunshots and a serious battle. The lighting was dark, and Macbeth had a close up focused on him with all of the background scenery blurred. There are flickering lights in the background, and Macbeth is sitting alone while he reflects on himself. This is when you can see on Macbeth’s face that everything around him is starting to crumble. His wife is dead, and he knows that the very power he obtained is about to flicker away just like the lights.
    (D) When Macbeth is sitting by himself reflecting, I almost can’t help but feel bad for him. He did a lot of wrong, but that doesn’t mean he could have never made it right. He became corrupted because of the power he had, and this quote made me think that even though people do bad things, doesn’t mean that they don’t realize it in the end.