Macbeth Essay

Macbeth Essay

"Macbeth is still as relevant today as it was when it was originally written and performed".

Is Macbeth still as relevant today as it was when it was originally written and performed? The answer may be different for many people but in my opinion, I still believe it is and I will show you why using the themes. There are six main themes in Macbeth but I will be focusing on three. The first is equivocation, then the Overthrow of Natural Order and lastly the effects of ambition and power on people. I will be using the play "Macbeth" written by Shakespeare in 1606 and the Film "Macbeth" re-written by Peter Moffat and directed by Mark Brozel in 2005 (which is a modern take of the play "Macbeth") to help me effectively communicate the importance of these themes.

To begin with, Equivocation is an important theme because Macbeth and his wife do this throughout the whole play and film once they have decided to take over the throne and murder Duncan, the King (act 1 scene 5). Macbeth is not good at equivocating and his wife knows it. In Act 1 Scene3, she tells him in a conversation before Duncan arrives at their house to "Look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under it". They do this so they can disguise what they really want to do.

At the Banquet Macbeth holds in Act 3 Scene 4, he starts seeing Banquo's ghost. He is the only one who can see this but he gets scared and starts reacting in front of his guests at the Banquet. He gets scared and thinks that someone is playing a trick on him. He starts talking in fear to the ghost and orders it to go away. His guests, worried, get up to leave but Lady Macbeth equivocates and says, "Sit worthy friends. He is often thus and has been from his youth". She covers up for him and is still loyal to Macbeth. In the end, he still talks in fear which forces Lady Macbeth to send the guests home.

Onto our second theme, the overthrow of Natural Order is made clear after unnatural things happen. The first is when Lady Macbeth prays to demons to take away everything that makes her a woman and to make her full of cruelty and evil. She urges Macbeth to kill Duncan so they can get the Kingdom. In the film, Ella Macbeth has set up everything and has done everything. She has only left the murder of Duncan for Joe Macbeth but even when he does it, he forgets to leave the knife there and he starts bleeding as well, mixing his blood with Duncans on the knife. Ella Macbeth then goes and gets another knife and completes the job. Joe cannot cope well with what he has done ad is not good at equivocating. In another scene, the camera pans at eye level at mid shot across Joe and Ella Macbeths room and it first shows Joe Macbeth lying on the bed with his head upside down next to Ella's, who is sitting in the floor with her head upright next to Joes upside down head. This shows us that his world is now upside down and is not normal but that this is Ella's nature. As the play progresses, she can't handle all the things they have done and she starts losing herself. She starts seeing spots of blood on her hands which aren't even there and in the film we are shown Ella washing her hands repeatedly. Her conscience is starting to pick up on all the things she has done and she goes crazy. In the end, this drives her to her death where she jumps off a building in the film. But when Joe finds out that she has died (through one of his workers), he starts saying to him "There was once a time where I could react to such news". He still has feelings for his wife but they have grown so much apart ever since they planned to murder Duncan.

The other unnatural thing happens when Duncan is murdered. In the conversation between Ross and the Old Man in Act 2 Scene 4, we find out strange events are happening in Scotland. Ross says "By the clock 'tis day, and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp" meaning that it is day time but it looks like night time still. Then the old man says "A falcon towering in her pride of place was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed" saying a Falcon was attacked and killed by