English Coursework: Shakespeare and Media
Shakespeare and many other writers of the Elizabethan time used soliloquies. The meaning of soliloquy is as follows, you share your thoughts, and thus giving the audience further insight into your characters and events. A soliloquy reveals a characters deepest thoughts and fears. Macbeth soliloquies enable us to understand Macbeth because a soliloquy indicates what a persons current thoughts are about a certain situation at that time, or what the person is thinking of doing at the minute. Throughout the three soliloquies we see the steady progression where Macbeth goes from a moral, good man to a murderous, evil man. I think that the RSC Production was far more traditional, I thought this was much more effective. Overall I thought the RSC put on a better production.
Before Macbeth starts soliloquy one, Lady Macbeth greats Duncan at the gates of Macbeth Castle along with Malcolm, Donalbain and others. She welcomes him by giving the impression that everything has been done twice, and then done it again. That would say to someone that they respect Duncan greatly and that they want to make a good impression, when infact they are planning on killing him. In the Soliloquy we see a somewhat nervous Macbeth. As the soliloquy continues we can see Macbeth realising more and more that he is doing something wrong. You can also see quite clearly the contrast between Macbeth’s costume of all black and Duncan’s white costume, representing innocence. Even Macbeth’s hair is dark, it is black and slicked back whereas Duncan’s is white like the rest of his costume representing once again just how innocent he is.
In the production by the RSC was much better than the BBC. RSC used shadows and I thought it was an excellent effect as it shows Macbeth’s struggle with his conscience, his struggle between good and evil. We can also see him sweating, something we don’t see in the BBC’s production. In the RSC’s production, the camera is fixed constantly on his face whereas in the BBC’s we can see the top half of his body. I think having the close up of Macbeth is better because we can see all his facial expressions. Throughout the soliloquy we know that there are other things going on because we can hear the banquet music going on in the background. At the end of the soliloquy Macbeth becomes slightly pathetic when he says, “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other side.” It seems like he no longer has the energy to even care anymore. When he begins to talk about his ‘Deep damnation’ he sounds scared because he knows that he is going to go to hell because he is a murderer. RSC have used the effects of light and shadow very much to their advantage. The director how used the light so that when he is talking about evil there is little light on him – he is more in the shadows. The BBC’s production presented a much more colourful production of Macbeth. The costumes had colours in them and there were extensive props in each scene. In soliloquy one the actor who plays Macbeth uses more gestures and is much more dramatic than the RSC actor, but I didn’t enjoy the way the BBC chose to act this. I thought it was over-acted and that is wasn’t as well preformed. I didn’t think there was any need for the amount of props that the BBC used because Shakespeare’s language is so rich we get many mental pictures, that, I think would create a better scene with all the necessary props in your own head. The way the RSC presented the play was much better than the BBC production because they didn’t have any props, so they left it to your own imagination.
