The idea of moral order can be found in Macbeth’s soliloquy, which is in Act 1, scene 7, lines 1–28, where he debates whether he should kill Duncan. When he lists Duncan’s good qualities (he “[h]ath borne his faculties so meek”) and the loyalty that he feels towards his king (“I am his kinsman and his subject”), we are reminded of just how evil it is for them to slaughter their king while he is a guest in their house. Macbeth’s fear that “[w]e still have judgement here, that we but teach / Bloody instructions which, being taught, return / To plague th’inventor,” foreshadows the way that his deeds will eventually come back to haunt him. Here, he reveals his awareness that he may be initiating a cycle of violence that will eventually destroy him. The imagery in this speech is dark—we hear of “bloody instructions,” “deep damnation,” and a “poisoned chalice”—and this suggests that Macbeth is aware of how the murder would open the door to a sinful world. He knows what he does is wrong, and he recognizes that there will surely be consequences. At the same time, he admits that his only reason for committing murder, “ambition,” suddenly seems an insufficient justification for the act. We see that Macbeth is not a good man at this point in the play, but he is not yet an evil one—he is tempted, and he tries to resist temptation. Macbeth’s resistance, however, is not vigorous enough to stand up to his wife’s ability to manipulate him.
Women as a source of evil is an idea commonly explored in Elizabethan’s plays. “Macbeth traces the root of chaos and evil to women, which has led some critics to argue that this is Shakespeare’s most misogynistic play. While the male characters are just as violent and prone to evil as the women, the aggression of the female characters is more striking because it goes against prevailing expectations of how women ought to behave.” (Sparknotes Editors). In the second part of this scene, we see how Lady Macbeth manipulates and provokes Macbeth to commit murder even when he had already decided not to. She uses various ways to make Macbeth agree with her.
She uses emotional blackmail, coupled with her femininity by saying she will not love him anymore: “From this time such I account thy love.” She knows that he loves her deeply and uses this against him. She then insults his masculinity by saying, “Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’ like the poor cat i’ the adage?” Here, she is calling him a “wimp” and a “scaredy cat”. She totally insulted him by comparing him to the cat that wants the fish but doesn’t want to get his paws wet.
She uses foul phrases with appalling imagery such as telling Macbeth that while she was breast feeding her baby she would: “while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn you had done to this.” She tries to come over as very menacing and heartless at this point in the play, making a point of the fact that if she had promised to kill her own child she would do so. The role of women at the time when Shakespeare wrote this play was that women were mothers and supported their husbands, their main role would be to look after the home. A Shakespearian audience would be appalled that Lady Macbeth is neither and that she even threatens a life of a child. She describes the plan to murder him in graphic detail. She convinces Macbeth that her plan will work. If Lady Macbeth hadn’t been in the picture, then undoubtedly Macbeth wouldn’t have murdered the King. Therefore, this play, particular this scene, exemplifies how women are a source of evil and how manipulative women can get.
Act 1 scene 7 of Polanski's version of Macbeth begins at 0:28:52, where the feasting and merriment with the king happens in Macbeth’s castle. Macbeth, unwisely, has left the table and is contemplating the deed that lies ahead of him, he is so engrossed by the conflict in his head that he misses the King’s toast this action is not in the original play but does highlight his self-doubt. The scene then shifts to a hallway outside the castle where Macbeth is thinking about whether he should murder the king. Polanski chooses to shoot this scene where in the backgroud, a storm is happening. The thunder, lightning and heavy rain reflects the internal unrest of Macbeth, where his evil thoughts are struggling with his moral order. As Macbeth is in deep thought in 0:29:45, half of his face is litted up while the other half of his face is not. The light is shot from the left of macbeth. The litted half of his face reflects the moral order present in him while the darker side of his face represents the evil thoughts.
Lady Macbeth then comes into the scene to see why Macbeth has left the banquet table. He then tells her he is fully determined not to continue with the plan. In the background we hear Fleance singing a sweet ballad which contrasts greatly with the evil & manipulative words of Lady Macbeth. This emphasizes the idea of women as a source of evil doings even more.
Lady Macbeth then attacks Macbeth manhood and describes him as coward. Macbeth is very offended by this. Lady Macbeth also uses her soft femininity to win him over and begins to cry. Now we no longer here the sweet voice of Fleance instead we here the fast paced music of the sword dance by Duncan's two male chamberlains. The two male chamberlains dance around the swords. This emphasizes the relationship between masculinity and murder/ killing.
Kurosawa's adaptation of Macbeth's Act 1 Scene 7 is very different from Polanski's version. It is very much different from the orginal shakespeare's play script too. I will be taking the scenes 0:34:58 to 0:36:36 and 0:39:24 to 0:41:55 to analyze.From 0:34:54 to 0:36:36, the scene is shot in a small room with Washizu (Macbeth) telling Asaji (Lady Macbeth) to put her heart as ease as the King (already present in his place) has absolute trust in him and has given him a high position. Previously, Asaji has planted alot of doubts in Washizu’s thoughts about the king and Miki. In this scene, however, Asaji is still able to continue planting bad thoughts into Washizu’s head. This film adaptation is in the “noh theater”, a form of japanese musical drama. Asaji’s face is painted and she acted like she had the noh mask on with her expressionless face. Th noh mask portrays the female character and in this case, also portrays a nonhuman (witch) character, since she is so evil.
This scene emphasizes the idea that women are a source of evil and trouble even more than the Polanski’s version. In Polanski’s version, we still see Lady Macbeth, crying, using her femininity to persuade Macbeth to commit the crime. In Kurosawa’s adaptation, we see that Asaji seldom look into the eyes of Washizu and she never shed a tear. She talks with much calm, showing that her words alone are enough to manipulate Washizu. She doesn’t even have to resort to using her feminine features to help her.
In conclusion, the ideas of moral order, women as a source of evil and the relationship between masculinity and murder are found in the play script and the two film adaptations.
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Works Cited
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Macbeth.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 17 Mar. 2011.
Macbeth. Dir. Roman Polanski. Perf. Jon Finch, Francesca Annis and Martin Shaw. Caliban Films, 1971. DVD
Throne of Blood. Dir. Akira Kurosawa. Perf. , and . Toho Company, 1961. DVD
paper ID: 181990426
