Lady Macbeth begins to manipulate Macbeth and challenges his feelings of guilt and pity for King Duncan and replaces them with malicious and spiteful feelings: 'look like th'innocent flower, but be the serpent under't’. Lady Macbeth now instructs Macbeth on how he should act, encouraging him to be deceitful to King Duncan, his loyal and trusting leader. Macbeth becomes so absorbed in his mixed feelings about the murder that he withdraws from the loving relationship that he had with Lady Macbeth in the beginning of the play.
I think in the beginning of the play Macbeth, and Lady Macbeth appear to have the perfect relationship to outsiders. They appear devoted to one another and solely one another, however by the end of Act 1 Scene vii I think we see that Macbeth’s true loyalties and concerns appear to lie purely with himself and his country. I believe that Lady Macbeth is a manipulative character who has almost fooled Macbeth into believing she is the love of his life by using the knowledge of where his true concerns will always lie. I feel Lady Macbeth’s blackmail of Macbeth disturbing behaviour to witness between two apparent soul mates.
I think that Lady Macbeth has a great thirst for power and that she simply uses Macbeth in this play to get what she desires. Macbeth seems to be a kind and loving man and cannot see Lady Macbeth’s true qualities. By the end of Act one Scene vii I no longer feel that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are truly in love and devoted to one another, I believe they are both merely in love with power and superiority.
In the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Act one Scene vii we are not shown any detail of the castle of the procession which should accompany the Kings entrance to Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s home, by doing this we are concentrated fully on the dialogue and events of the scene. In this production Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are presented as being very much in love throughout the scene, they stare into each other’s eyes and make small exchanges of contact through hands and arms. They appear they cannot bear to be away from each other. Lady Macbeth is portrayed as being lifeless and mindless in this production, she is dressed in dowdy black clothes with no hair showing or make up on. It is almost as if The Royal Shakespeare Company wanted to hide all traces of her femininity. During Macbeth’s soliloquy in this production his face is like a blank canvas, he is staring into the camera appearing to be addressing the audience. This involves the audience in his emotions and decisions in this scene, he stares blankly while speaking, an almost eerie stare.
In the background we can ironically hear the music from the banquet being held for Duncan which heightens the hypocrisy of the whole matter. Lady Macbeth enters at this point and we can immediately tell that she is worried about him being on his own, she realises that Macbeth will make decisions without her and she refuses to let him do so. Lady Macbeth immediately gains control as she is stronger verbally than Macbeth, hen Lady Macbeth is convincing Macbeth to murder we are however reminded of her femininity, she has almost a sexual energy when she is blackmailing Macbeth, her face is sweaty and glowing and her breath is quick and heavy. She passes this energy onto Macbeth who also becomes breathless and sweaty, the mood appears very intense.
Lady Macbeth’s face is closest to the screen throughout the exchanges, this reminds us that she is very much in control of Macbeth at this point, we see here how dominating her character is. Macbeth realises he is loosing his own decisions to her again and tries to soften her with a kiss, however Lady Macbeth has become cold and heartless while talking again about murder and jumps back as if startled. We see here how she is playing mind games with Macbeth in order to get her own way. By the end of Lady Macbeth’s argument the power and thought of murder seems to have brought with it an intimacy between them, they part with the plans set up to kill Duncan and we see how Lad Macbeth used her sexual appeal and power to win over Macbeth’s mind.
Polanski’s version is very different to that of the text and The Royal Shakespeare Company. Polanski shows great detail of the preparation for the banquet, he uses vibrant colours and loud rhythmic music to create an apparent happy atmosphere. The film shows how much the servants and Macbeth and Lady Macbeth put so much time and effort into the banquet. This emphasises the absolute hypocrisy of the scene, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth share food with Duncan and praise his qualities as King. I think Polanski was determined to show us the insincerity of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s actions towards the King in Act one Scene seven as he shows us the soliloquy as Macbeth’s private thoughts while sitting next to the King at the banquet table, Polanski takes it as far as showing Macbeth toast the King whilst he is in the middle of these thoughts.
During the celebration Macbeth has a blank look on his face, this reminds us constantly that something is morally wrong, the storm also portrays moral chaos. Polanski chooses to show the horses escaping at this point of the play even thought this is not so in the true text. I think he does this to emphasise the moral chaos and disorder that is ensuing in the castle. After Polanski shows us the shot of Duncan’s horses escaping into the night he returns to the castle to show a young boy singing to the child, he uses the severity of the storm contrasted with the naivety of the child to symbolise what is taking place in Duncan and Macbeth’s minds.
The warmth and love in the banquet hall is made to appear very superficial in Polanskis film, he wants to constantly remind us that things are not what they appear and things do not necessarily always happen as we predict. When Macbeth leaves the banquet hall to continue his soliloquy he retreats to a darkened hall within earshot of the celebration, we see him staring out into the storm with a troubled look upon his face, it is obvious his thoughts are swamped with thoughts of murder, deceit and treason. We are only shown the side of his face and at no point does he turn to face the camera, he appears disgusted with himself due to this apparent hiding from the audience. While Macbeth is thinking at this point of Duncan’s murder there is a blue light cast across his face, this looks ominous and evil, Polanski uses this to remind us just how serious Macbeth’s thoughts are. Lady Macbeth enters the shot; sneakily from behind Macbeth this startles Macbeth and the audience.
Polanski depicts Lady Macbeth in a very different way from The Royal Shakespeare Company. In his film Lady Macbeth is very feminine and pretty, she has long strawberry blonde hair and is dressed in elegant dresses. This suggests purity and innocence from the outside, however we see that she is not pure and innocent when she convinces Macbeth to murder. Lady Macbeth almost chases Macbeth to get her point across, she is determined she will get her own way, Macbeth struggles with his thoughts, he wants to honour the King and Scotland, however we soon see that he gives in to her. Both though are very careful to keep up the appearance and Lady Macbeth dances with Duncan to ensure all appears well. This shows the absolute hypocrisy of the whole celebration. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are almost crying when entering the banquet scene at this point. Macbeth is torn between his country and his wife, and Lady Macbeth feels she is loosing control of her husband. A smile quickly returns to Lady Macbeth’s face however when we see Macbeth agreeing to pursue the murder, Polanski has here shown how Lady Macbeth abused her feminine powers to influence Macbeth’s mind. The scene ends with Macbeth’s inward thinking again and Polanski omitted a few lines that he felt were irrelevant to the scene.
I prefer to watch The Royal Shakespeare’s version of Act one Scene seven as I like the way they have the entire play set with a black background. I think this way it is easier to appreciate facial expressions and tone of voice, as there are no props and extras to distract your mind away from the plot. I also like the way they try to hide the characters behind plain costumes, this way their true character is only seen in crucial points in the play. I think however that maybe some detail to the banquet and the castle would have been helpful to us though as at times the scene was difficult to understand. I think maybe if we could se al little of what the characters were speaking of it would have helped understand the language more efficiently.
By Kirsti Hanlon
