This darkness is designed to place your main focus on Lady Macbeth. The focus is placed on the other two characters by careful camera positioning. It is very close to them at the start of the scene and moves slightly further back as the scene progresses. The same is so for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) production, the darkness places the focus on Lady Macbeth and the camera places focus on the doctor and the gentlewoman.
When Lady Macbeth is seen washing her hands our minds are cast back to when she told Macbeth, shortly after the death of Duncan, “a little water will clear us of this deed”. This is highly ironic, as the guilt of the deed is still with her until her suicide and so, metaphorically, has the blood. The next memorable quotation that I could identify would be Lady Macbeth’s statement “Hell is Murky”. This to me is a sign that she knows where this deed will result in her going to: hell. This tells me also that she regrets what she has done and knows how she shall pay for it, with her sanity and eventually her life.
In the same monologue she asks rhetorically “who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?” This is related to the murder of Duncan and it tells me that she has had afterthoughts on the committing of the murder. She regrets it and a lot of blood could symbolize effects of the killing spreading, like the blood of Duncan, faster and faster and further and therefore Lady Macbeth could in theory be saying, “Why and how did this have such a massive psychological effect on me?” The line that follows this portrays equally as well the guilt that Lady Macbeth is feeling, “The Thane of Fife had a wife, where is she now?” In the BBC version, we hear her recite this as if it were a nursery rhyme, which could represent the innocence of youth that Lady Macbeth has lost through murderous deeds. “What will these hands ne’er be clean?” simply refers to her bloody hands and the next line, “All the perfumes of Arabia will sweeten this little hand”, suggests to me that Lady Macbeth, after mentioning it twice before, thoroughly regrets Duncan’s murder and wishes to rid herself of the smell of his blood on her hands. The fact that she thinks the blood is still on her hands simply reinforces the fact that she has lost her mind and has gone insane. The use of the word little (“this little hand”) makes me think that Lady Macbeth feels belittled, perhaps because Macbeth has detached himself from her or perhaps because of the fact that she no longer plays a major role in their relationship. In both versions Lady Macbeth is heard crying “Oh! Oh! Oh!” (Which can be found on lines forty-nine and fifty) with a little more emotion than is required in merely pronouncing the words. In the RSC version, Judi Dench gives a disturbing shriek, which comes to a crescendo. This would be to convey that Lady Macbeth was terrified of anyone finding out what she and her husband had done and that she was terrified of where she was ultimately destined; hell. In the BBC version it is conveyed as a series of cries, flowing the sniffing of her hands, rising in volume each time. “Banquo’s buried, he cannot come out of on’s grave!” (Lines sixty-sixty one) refers to the banquet scene where Macbeth saw the ghost of Banquo and did not act as majestic as he should have. “What’s done cannot be undone” (Lines sixty four-sixty five) refers again to the murder of Duncan. Both of these previously mentioned lines are dramatized and emotionally charged in both productions.
I think that a better production could be made if factors from both were mixed together to form a perfect performance. For example, the manner in which Judi Dench (RSC production) speaks in a heart-wrenching voice as if she is on the bawling her eyes out helps reveal and release emotion and tension felt by Lady Macbeth. However Jean LaPotaire (BBC version) portrays the physical and mental support she has for her husband when she tells him to “come, come, come, come” in line sixty three-sixty four much better than Dench. The BBC version includes an eerie mist on the stage, this suggests to me that evil was present, also darkness, mystery and disguise. The candle that Dench uses also attracts the attention of the viewer. This is much better than the BC version in the sense that the light to the rear of the set distracts viewers’ focus but LaPotaire’s acting around and alongside the doctor and gentlewoman was exceptionally impressive in its portraying of Lady Macbeth’s sense being shut (line twenty five).
