Caylee Penka Ms. Dodd English 12 May 3, 2023 Macbeth Scene Comparision Essay Every choice has a consequence, every action has a reaction, every cause has an effect. This ongoing cycle is made clear with the characters in William Shakespeare’s tragic play, Macbeth. Act V, scene i of Macbeth holds particular interest for the character Lady Macbeth and her dramatic change from who she is early in the play, to who she is by the end. The 2010 movie version of the play, directed by Rupert Goold, starring Patrick Stewart as Macbeth and Kate Fleetwood as Lady Macbeth, stays true to the story even with differing artistic choices. Shakespeare’s original intent for act V, scene i was to display Lady Macbeth’s increasing insanity and create a regretful …show more content…
In the play, the Gentlewoman tells the Doctor about what she observes each night as the Doctor asks questions. However, the voice and facial expressions of the Gentlewoman in the movie are scared and nervous, and the Doctor is visibly perplexed, creating an unsettling mood about what is happening with Lady Macbeth. Moreover, Shakespeare intended to use this first third of the scene to develop Lady Macbeth’s character as insane. When Duncan dies in act II, it is because of Lady Macbeth’s crazy insistence for Macbeth to take action. Lady Macbeth is constantly trying to get a nonexistent spot of blood off her hands when she sleepwalks and she says to it, “Out, damned spot! Out, I say!” (V.i. 25). The exclamation marks mean that Shakespeare intended for both of those lines to be loud, but in the movie Fleetwood starts them quietly and then yells like a psychotic character in a horror film. Her face becomes twisted and angry at the spot of blood, adding to her already disheveled appearance in her nightgown. Her sleepwalking and reaction to the imaginary blood on her hands proves that there is an unsettling tone, and Lady Macbeth is not in a sound mental …show more content…
Whereas the play portrays Lady Macbeth as feeling depressed and guilty about her involvement in the murders, especiallly Duncan’s, the movie puts more emphasis on her insanity that comes from her reliving the past each night. She switches between tones with the lines, “A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who / knows it, when none can call our power to / account?—Yet who would have thought the old man / to have had so much blood in him,” (V.i. 27-30). Her lines are inconsistent and dramatic as she goes from repeating what was said in act II to speaking about Duncan in a conscience-striken way. This creates a tense, troubling mood. In contrast to the play, the flim makes it easier to understand that she is reliving the moments surrounding Ducan’s murder with the setting being in same corridor with the same sink from act II. Lady Macbeth has a confident look for the first part of the quote and then her face changes to that of pain for the switch in it, leaning a lot on her insanity. The movie is more dramatic with the internal unrest of Lady Macbeth’s mind, but both versions detail how she tortures herself with the thoughts of her past actions every