He married Anne Hathaway at the age of eighteen and it is believed that he may have become schoolmaster.
Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway had a daughter in 1583 and twins (one boy and one girl) in 1585. The boy did not see it through infancy. He then became an actor then began to write plays which are still being performed and studied today.
Shakespeare spent all of his life in England and never left it although he wrote plays about different countries. Shakespeare retired from acting, directing and writing into his late forties and stayed in Stratford until he died.
Shakespeare’s plays can be defined in three categories: Histories, Comedies and tragedies. One of the most famous tragedies is the play Macbeth also known as the Scottish play because some actors that played a part in the Macbeth play believe that it is cursed and that mentioning the name means bad luck. The actual king Macbeth was liked by the population of Scotland and did not go mad but he did murder king Duncan to become the king of Scotland. The play was performed as early as 1606. The play was published in 1623 in the first edition of Shakespeare’s works.
For my assignment, I am going to describe and view the opening scene from Macbeth where the three witches discuss future events and plot what they will do with Macbeth.
The first production is Roman Polanski’s version of the play Macbeth. This film was made in 1971, The entrance for this film produces an eerie effect as the first shot is a panoramic view while the night’s sky quickly turns today. There is a strange sound in the background but there is no speech. All that can be seen is seagulls in the background that are circling the sky waiting for prey. In the next scene three witches appear and begin to dig a hole on the beach where the scene is set. The witches do not say anything at all yet. The meaning behind this is to make the scene as strange as possible. They begin to put strange objects in the hole including a noose, a forearm and hand, a dagger and then to finish it off they sprinkle herbs on the ingredients then cover the hole up and pour blood on it. Polanski wants to get his thoughts on how evil the spell that is effecting the judgement of Macbeth somehow. Polanski’s version of the opening scene sticks to the original script where the other film does not.
“When shall we three meet again
In thunder, lightning or in rain?”
The two lines above suggest that the witches have already completed what they had already planned to do. Witches were believed to be reality in Shakespeare’s day; weather so the second line ‘in thunder lightning or in rain’ suggests that the witch is asking what time will we meet at again.
Each witch is different and plays their own part; the youngest witch is the least powerful, her part is to watch out and care for the eldest witches. The middle witch is ageing but still has not the wisdom of the eldest. The eldest witch is blind but also is the intellectual guidance that the others require. Each witch contributes something to the group to help it to function properly.
When all the lines of the witches have been said they begin to depart from the shot the eldest and youngest witch go off to the left together suggesting that the youngest witch looks after the blind witch on a permanent basis. The middle witch goes off to the right alone.
In Orson Welles version the scene opens with a silhouetted outcast of the witches over a cauldron in black and white. The first lines from the witches are from a different scene is act4, then it goes into the normal script.
“When the hurlyburlys done
When the battle’s lost and won”
The above lines mean that when the fighting and the battle is over then they will meet each other to discuss what they will do with Macbeth. “When the battle’s lost and won”, this means that when someone has won the battle and another has lost it.
In this version the witches are not seen but only heard. Welles makes the witches stereotypical to the fairytale witches from children’s books. They have very eerie strange voices with no accent to speak of.
“There to meet with Macbeth”
For this line the third in Welles version pauses between with and Macbeth creating a build up of tension with the music after “Macbeth” is said. This effect was used very frequently in the order of the black and white movies. All three witches are dressed alike when they are surrounding the cauldron. The entrance music continues when “Macbeth” appears on the title screen with the shot still in the background. This scene is quite interesting as Orson Welles uses lines from another play at the beginning then goes into the Macbeth script to give the effect that the information that the witches were discussing was the main content and that the viewers just catch ending bit of their conversation.
I prefer Polanski’s version of Macbeth as it is eerie and very original and it stays away form the stereotypical witches.
If I were to make a version of Macbeth by William Shakespeare I would set it in the present day in America and have the language of today to attract a younger audience as it is hard for people to understand Shakespeare by today’s standards. Macbeth’s kingdom would be territory of a gang boss in New York. King Duncan would be the previous head of the gang. To acquire the power of honour Macbeth would kill Duncan in the open to make sure that people do not mess with him. The witches would be women of the street that appear in alley ways when Macbeth is travelling from place to place and tell him secrets of different gangs and other information. The main story would stay the same with all the original characters within it. It would combine a William Shakespeare play with a modern action film as the way Romeo and Juliet was made a few years ago.
