The Witches are an integral part of Macbeth. Discuss how two (or more) directors have presented these characters in Ii and Iiii.

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The Witches are an integral part of Macbeth. Discuss how two (or more) directors have presented these characters in Ii and Iiii.

I have recently viewed a variety of productions of Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. They differed greatly when compared to each other, as each director had their own individual approach to the play.  I was sceptical of how some directors would comprehensively do justice to this classic play in an audio-visual version aimed at a modern audience.

Each production had its own unique introduction, to set the theme for the remainder of Macbeth. In Polanski’s film version, he opened the play with a scene containing the "three weird sisters" who are witches, chanting and conjuring spells on a beach, while they buried various objects. The beach is a vast area and there is no sign of life. This creates an eerie atmosphere as they entered into the scene. Prior to burying these objects they engraved a circle in the sand; a symbol of no weakness as a circle has no beginning and no end. Amongst these objects were a noose and a half an arm, clutching a dagger. From reading the text we see here that these objects are symbolic to the prophecies, and as they are associated with death and evil, raising the audience's suspicion about murder and death, and also set the theme for the rest of the production. The red sky may be used to represent blood and death. It also prepares us for Macbeth’s actions later in the play. Whilst they occupy a beach, the surrounding sky is a vivid blue colour. This could be to symbolise their coldness, as they will later tempt Macbeth, and make him feed on the "insane root" and the temp his with his own fate.  The red sky may be due to the setting of the sun. Once the sun has set, it must decline in the sky and come down, this may be used to show the downfall in society as their king had been murdered, and the death of King Duncan himself. This beach scene is also Polanski's method of conveying the Witches’ world and the human world apart. His uses the beach as it is set beside the sea, and this boundary may, in my opinion symbolize the divide between their supernatural world and the normal world. They gather on the beach floor, and this is like a supernatural gathering and gives the impression of a séance. The Witches then leave the scene after talking, which included talks mentioning Macbeth, in which one the young Witch does not speak, the First Witch speaks her lines. The young Witch accompanies the first Witch away from where the hole was dug, as if she were an apprentice Witch to the elder Witch.

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 Polanski uses animal life to suggest evil. He uses the seagull as they were viewed as being almost like a puppet of evil, and they were seen as a bird that was a sign of misfortune. The music at this point is out of tune to represent how they are from another worlds and this gives the sense of an eerie, unnatural atmosphere. When taking a look at the three Witches, Polanski chose to convey them as evil, and yet tried to tie in a sense of humanity as he tried not to get carried away with their evil abilities ...

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