Compare the written text of act 1 scenes 1 and 3 of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' with Roman Polanski's film version. Analyse and comment on the effect of the film techniques used, and their impact on audience, in the portrayal of the witches.

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Adam Bowen

Compare the written text of act 1 scenes 1 and 3 of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ with Roman Polanski’s film version.  Analyse and comment on the effect of the film techniques used, and their impact on audience, in the portrayal of the witches.

The witches are the first characters the audience meet at the beginning of ‘Macbeth’ in Act 1 scene 1 and they set the mood for the rest of the play.  Today witches are seen as bizarre but when Shakespeare was writing his plays people were fascinated and frightened by them.  During the reign of Elizabeth 1, hundreds of women, and some men, were convicted of witchcraft and executed.  People were frightened of witches because they were believed to have amazing powers.  They could curse entire communities, bringing disease and misfortune.  They used evil spells and black magic.   In ‘Macbeth’ the witches talk about their familiars:

“1 Witch: I come Greymalkin!

2 Witch:  Paddock calls.”

In Elizabethan times familiars were believed to be demons obeying a witch.  Yet people were intrigued by witches as well.  They performed strange rituals and spells.  The powers they possessed were also alluring:

“Fair is foul, and foul is fair;

Hover through the fog and filthy air.”

The witches seem to be suggesting that white is black and black is white; they mix up good and evil. It suggests to the audience that the film is going to be about good and evil and that you sometimes can not tell the difference between the two.

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Elizabethan directors would have interpreted Shakespeare’s text in a very literal way.  Together with the thunder and lighting of the Shakespeare text, the witches would have created quite a spectacle on the Elizabethan stage.

In act 1 scene 3 the witches are playing with the wind and controlling the entry of ships to certain ports.   The witches seem not to have a great deal of power:

“Though his bark cannot be lost,

Yet it shall be tempest-tossed.”

The witches cannot sink the ’bark’ or ship but they can create a storm causing inconvenience and frustration.

“So ...

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