I am going give my opinion on how Bill Alexander portrays Act 1 Scene 7 of Macbeth, comparing this to the original Shakespeare text.

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Sara Montgomery  

In this piece of coursework I am going give my opinion on how Bill Alexander portrays Act 1 Scene 7 of Macbeth, comparing this to the original Shakespeare text.  This scene plays a very important role in the play as we see the power that Lady Macbeth has over her husband.  We see this through the language used, the colours used in the film and also the choice of actress to play the role of Lady Macbeth.  In this scene we will also look at how well Bill Alexander brings forth this great Shakespeare play.

        As we enter this scene we read Macbeth’s soliloquy.  Through this we can see that he clearly is not as evil as the dark background in the production makes him out to be.  As Macbeth talks on we can see that he starting to realise that taking part in this murder is not the thing he should be doing, “as his host, who should against the murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself.” As this is taking place a light starts to shine on Sinclair’s face, which shows connotations of good in the midst of evil.  Before the end of this soliloquy, Lady Macbeth enters, showing us that she is always in the midst of his thoughts, and also showing her determination to have this evil deed over and done with.  In the ‘BBC shorts production’ Louise Lombard, who plays the role of Lady Macbeth, is very well suited as she has a husky, man-like voice and has short black hair, which also shows man-like features.  As she enters the room were Sinclair is standing, we see that she is wearing a long, flowing, dark, metallic like dress, and has her dark hair all slicked back.  This shows her likeness to a man and also ties in well with her ‘unsex me’ speech earlier in the play.

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        When she hears Macbeth’s doubts concerning the killing of the king, she immediately starts to challenge his man – hood, and questioning his clearness of mind.  She does this by asking, “was the hope drunk wherein you dressed yourself?” she then starts too question his manhood by saying that he is afraid to act resolutely in order to get what he really wants, but who really wants this deed to take place?  Macbeth can take no more after his wife has called him a coward, and says to her ‘Prithee, peace.’ In the short film production, Sinclair says this with ...

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