Act 1 ,scene 1 ,is placed on an ‘open place’ , amidst the thunder and lightning. Instantly Shakespeare has made the audience aware of the evil present an the emotional violence which will follow in the play .In Elizabethan England people were very superstitious and it was believed that fierce storms released forces of evil, and were omens of unrest in individual people and whole countries .As the scene comes to an end the three witches depart, they ‘Hover through fog and filthy air’, Shakespeare has described the surroundings .Shakespeare ,with a clear simple description has made his audience aware of the setting .
Polanski in 1971 ,had obvious cinematic advantages and chose a desolate ,barren shoreline as his setting .The scene starts off with an image of a vibrant red sky, reflecting the old saying , ‘Red sky at morning shepherds warning’ ,a proverb showing the evil which is present .The red sky changes to a dark grey sky ,and a lone seagull flies across the sky ,it is the only sign of life and hope .Silence descends over the never-ending deserted shoreline and three women make their entrance and dig into the wet sand beneath them with their bare hands ,working quickly. They then bury objects in the sand .The shoreline and the landscape appear very natural, unlike the abnormality of the women who, in fact ,are witches.
As the scene comes to an end they walk off into the distance over the damp sand. A low-lying mist appears and soon the witches are quickly eaten up by the mist ,fog and filthy air .Reflecting Shakespeare’s line, ‘Hover through fog and filthy air’ .The scene is over.
Shakspeares use of thunder and lightning in this scene would have alerted his audience of the presence of evil. He created this effect using percussion instruments (drums,symbols) ,and even thunder boards.
Polanski uses eerie music of a demonic quality to reflect this evil atmoshere ,and does so very effectively .As his scene moves to a barren ,never-ending shoreline and menacing grey sky ,wild creatures are heard in the backround and the faint sound of churchbells reflecting normality and christianity .For a period of time all is silent and a lone seagull is heard through all the silence ,a symbol of hope and normality through all the supernatural and evil violence .All is silent until it’s broken by the coughing of one of the three witches who can be heard panting .Grunting ,noises are heard which are very effective along side the silence and emptiness .The witches carry out their evil deeds in almost total silence ,only the heavy breathing and the moving of objects can be heard .The silence in which the witches work shows how concentrated they are in the task ahead .
As the witches leave, the eerie music returns .Polanski has effectively reflected the eeriness of Shakespeare’s scene.
When Shakespeare was writing ,most people believed in witches ,and recognised them as the devil’s minions who only caused evil .Shakespeare therefore had little need to do more than present these creatures conventionally .Their language alone would have alerted the audience to their evil purpose and their capacity for supernatural powers . ‘Fair is foul ,and foul is fair’. ‘I come Grey malkin’. ‘Paddock calls’. ‘That will be ere the set of sun’. These lines alone simply ,and effectively reinforce for his audience that evil was present.
Polanski, however, had to work harder to convince his audience of the witches’ evil powers .The three witches enter to silence on a deserted, barren shoreline. They are hideous creatures ,their appearance is shocking and repellent ,defects all over there skin.
The third witch enters first and digs a hole in the wet sand as if her life depended on it .The three witches were of three different ages ,showing witchcraft is present across the generations for one is deaf ,one is dumb ,and one is blind .They work together ,and need each other to survive ,and they do so well .They all look harmless ,but are capable of evil deeds using their supernatural powers and consequently have a deceptive nature ,belying their appearance .They all speak with a similar accent ,but each seems to have its own personality .They do not have familiars with them and do not cackle or laugh .Polanski did well in effectively showing the witches to a modern audience and portraying the evil present.
All appears normal, upon Polanski’s empty desolate shoreline; all is quiet and there appears to be no ,life apart from one lone seagull amongst the grey ,menacing sky ,showing there is still hope .Suddenly the witches make their dramatic their dramatic entrance.
A bent misshapen stick ,perhaps symbolic of the witches’ feelings and appearance, enters the scene, shattering the lonely atmosphere ,and is stabbed into the ground by one of the witches .The youngest woman then digs frantically into the wet sand, almost as creating a cauldron .This makes the audience curious and uneasy ,as to what exactly they are doing .They then place various objects in the sand :a hangman’s noose ,representing the death of the previous Thane of Cawdor ;a severed arm with a dagger placed in the hand ,representing the dagger to kill Duncan and Macbeth’s loss of control ,his greed in a mind of its own ;seeds are then sprinkled over all ,representing the growth of mayhem ,Macbeth’s growing ambitions and the growth of evil ;finally they sprinkle blood from a phial, representing the blood spilt by Macbeth in his reign of terror .All of this symbolises the witches interfering in Macbeth’s future .
As the witches perform their spell, they give an impression that they have done this before, as each knows what to do without fault or hesitation .They then spit on the sand three times each (as the number three was and still is connected with evil). All of this is providing a disturbing atmosphere which is very eerie, as Shakespeare created in his original.
Everything is seen, nothing is hidden ,faces ,voices ,we are aware of everything.
At the end Polanski has the witches leave in fog and mist, as they appear to hover through the fog and mist as in Shakespeare’s original, ‘Hover through fog and filthy air’. They leave no footprints ,further evidence of their supernatural powers.
The original text of ‘Macbeth’ was written over three hundred and fifty years ago in the sixteenth century, by Shakespeare, a brilliant playwright .Many movie interpretations and theatrical plays have been made from this text and it is accepted that the producers and directors can do whatever they like as long as they retain a healthy respect for the text .Shakespeare’s text must not be changed!!
Polanski respects the text in principle, but does alter the placing of certain lines, transferring the concluding lines of Shakespeare’s scene to the start , ‘Foul is fair and fair is foul’ .He also moves , ‘Hover through the fog and filthy air’ ,and thereby opens with a sense of mystery making the audience curious at to what is going on.He emphasises a main theme of the play appearance and reality for things are not as they seem . Evidence of this is in Lady Macbeth’s line when she says, ‘Look like the innocent flower ,but be the serpent underneat’ .To her husband ,instructing him to appear to be innocent whilst in fact he is concocting evil in his mind!
Polanski does not refer to the witches’ familiars Greymalkin and Haddock for these would probably have little meaning to a modern audience, compared to the sixteenth century Elizabethan audience.
Polanski also quickly emphasises the name ‘Macbeth’, placing it at the end of his scene whereas Shakespeare placed it in the middle of his text .This makes the audience curious ,as to who this man is, creating dramatic impact .
Although Polanski has taken liberties with Shakespeare’s text ,he did so to catch the atmosphere ,mood and the main themes of the original and therefore reflects Shakespeare’s themes in his movie interpretation.
I have greatly enjoyed both the original and Roman Polanski’s version , both were very good each magnificent in its own way however, I personally favoured Polanski’s over the original as he had access to all modern movie making equipment ,which in this day and age is very important .The original was a masterpiece which I very much enjoyed ,and this is the reason why it has been so popular and so many movie adaptations have been made over the three and a half centuries since it was written .It would be very hard and unfair to compare the two ,for if it had not been for shakespeare writing his original centuries ago Polanski would have nothing to work on .Polanski had to rely on Shakespeare who wrote the great play .
Thanks to Shakespeare ,Polanski was able to do his movie interpretation .He retained the essence that Shakespeare wanted and he had , ‘A healthy respect for the language’.
Both great works created visual drama ,Polanski has done an excellent job as he has achieved the same gripping effect on his twentieth century audience as Shakespeare did in the sixteenth century .Polanski is a very talented director who has in his adaptation of Shakespeare’s scene created an intimidating atmosphere, arousing his audience’s curiosity and pulling them into the disordered world of ‘Macbeth’!
