Cinematic Adaptation of Macbeth: A Comparative Analysis

This essay analyzes the perspectives of the characters in the play/film and identifies the extent to which what is seen and not seen by them as crucial to the plot development and thematic structure.

Running Head: CINEMATIC ADAPTATION OF PLAY
Cinematic Adaptation Of Play
Name of Student
Name of University
Author note

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Introduction
Macbeth is perhaps the most frequently adapted stage production of Shakespeare and has
traditionally been a favorite directors who like to think out of the box. Of the numerous film
adaptations of Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Rupert Goold’s modernization of the plot is
considered one of the most successful attempts at Shakespearean film adaptation (Singh and
Arora, 2015). Despite sharing many ideologies and a similar storyline with Shakespeare’s
Macbeth, there exists the underlying differences in setting, ambience and characters in the story.
The film features a suffocating environment with its candid footages of vicious executions and
unscrupulous minds that makes the audience gasp for breadth. Since a whole lot of research goes
into the comparing and contrasting of film adaptations of theatre, for this essay, it would be
interesting to consider the narrative, psychology and thematic complexity of the original and the
adapted productions. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the perspectives of the characters in
the play/film and identify the extent to which what is seen and not seen by them as crucial to the
plot development and thematic structure.
Discussion
Starting off with the eponymous hero himself, Patrick Stewart as Macbeth is vigorous, virile and
deeply inflicted with the madness of overreaching. His role is exceptional enough to perturb the
audience with actions as regular as cutting a sandwich, but what leaves an indelible mark in their
minds is his intriguing recreation of the dagger scene. The slow pace of delivery, the diabolical
howling sound, the lowered voice and the ambitious, emotionless eyes had everything in them to
inform the audience of the dark happenings (Martin, 2017). Remembering the Elizabethan
production, the scene had Macbeth hallucinating an air-drawn dagger, with blood dripping from
its blade. Macbeth’s conjecture of the blood being that of Duncan’s is a clear indication of his

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disturbed psyche. Rupert Goold smartly utilizes a direct camera view for reconstructing the
scene. The slow zooming in on the character allows the audience a highly satisfying view of the
actor’s brilliance. The scene ends with Macbeth walking out of a tunnel, the lights going off as
he strides towards the darkness. The background music slows down, starts to reverberate and the
audience is made aware of his murderous intents. The means of conveying to the audience, the
internal workings of the protagonist’s mind have changed in course of time, although its motive
and psychological implications bear uncanny similarities (Martin, (2017). However, Macbeth
either in theatre or in film, would not shine as much as he does without the conniving Lady
Macbeth. Goold choses to portray her as pure evil and Kate Fleetwood does excellent justice to
the director’s perspective. The image of Goold’s Lady Macbeth with her protruding bone
structure, her high cheek and yawning eye sockets, has the potential to drain all positive energies
of the onlooker. Her manner is icy, her demeanor rigid and unfeeling and what she sees in
Duncan on the night of his murder is crucial to the psychological understanding and the thematic
interpretation of the production. In Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth had to refrain from committing
the deed herself as she saw her father in the king. This bespeaks of her unstable nature and her
inefficacy in living up to her words. This same Lady had shunned her husband for changing his
mind about the murder, and swore to have dashed a nibbling infant against a wall to remain
faithful towards a pledge. Like Shakespeare, Goold depicts the downfall of Lady Macbeth into
insanity quite painfully, making her comprehensible human being who is deserving of sympathy
towards the end (Neilson, 2014).
The film is set in the era of Cold War and all the characters take on different identities. No other
supernatural creations of Shakespeare is as unnerving and appealing like the weird sisters. The
film portrays the witches as maids and servants although they do not act as either of the

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professions. The audience is given a bitter taste of their gruesome nature at the very outset with
the camera’s focus on the narrow corridor of the bunker’s, the three bizarre womanly shapes
twitching, twisting and high-pitched hissing. Abiding by the proposition that the witches in
Shakespeare represented fate, it only makes sense to suggest that the entire plot is laid out and
controlled by fate. In theatre, the weird sisters constantly lurks behind the curtains and appears in
prime time. They were present in Macbeth’s kitchen during Duncan’s arrival, served the food at
the banquet when Macbeth had seen Banquo’s ghost and performed necromantic rituals for
prophesying Macbeth’s future. In Goold’s adaptation, the disconcerting set design of Anthony
Ward places the actions in a hellish underground kitchen where actors enter and exit frequently
via a creepy service life that has clanging metal doors. Initially, the film introduces the witches
as nurses employed at a field hospital, their transformation to silent and sullen household stuff
had premonitory hints. Goold’s production was inspired both by Stalin and Orwell (1984),
demonstrating how the protagonist builds a perilous reign of terror, in which random killings,
surveillance and physical tortures are routine. The deeply disconcerting electronic score by
Adam Cork and the relentless shuddering coup de theatre comes together to make the film a
classic, comparable with works by Tarantino. Although some scenes cross over the edge of dark
comedy, like the one where the witches rap their spell, the scene plot lapses into gimmickry
(Bradley, 2015).
The fluctuating relationships between the Macbeths comprise the central focus of both the
theatrical and the cinematic productions (Howard and O’Conner, 2013). Initially, the film’s Lady
Macbeth is a titillating, scheming siren, who lures her husband to committing murder. She seems
to be the controlling force of the marriage, and Macbeth appears to be a mere puppet in her
hands. The gradual shift in the power balance becomes important to consider in the context of

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the discussion. Macbeth who was once an honest soldier and a reliable subject of the king
sprawls towards an ignominious, treacherous monster before the audience. He only wades deeper
into the wrongdoings as an attempt to subdue the nightmares (Stone, 2016). Meanwhile, his
decrepit and rejected wife descends into madness. Further, Goold manipulates gazes so that the
viewers can experience Macbeth’s consciousness and thoughts. Implementing symbolism and
staging devices enables Goold to effectively effuse more terror into the film. Through the
evocative background music, the croaking of raven, Goold manages to make his audience
experience the same angst and agitation felt by the characters. Strange effects, blending the
supernatural and the natural, characterize the witch scenes (Martin, 2017). They were endowed
with a reanimating gift, the edge between magic and science is blurred. Goold has successfully
foreshadowed Macbeth’s mental deterioration by emphasizing his dependency on other
characters of the story and his impotency in taking rational decisions. The witches, like Lady
Macbeth manipulates him, like in the original text. In both the productions Macbeth allows
himself to be lured sexually and mentally by his wife who, identifying his weaknesses, toys with
his sentiments (Theile, 2016). Goold’s Macbeth is eternally cursed by a deepness of vision, an
innate ability of conjuring up the undulating consequences of the grave actions he continues to
undertake, leading him to the austere grounds of existential sparseness. The director and his actor
make clear that the protagonist is not killed by Macduff in reality, but is driven to catastrophe by
his own calling. His nihilistic nature drives him to perils.
The spiteful and stark world surrounding this self-crushing brooder is quite conspicuous, owing
to its displayed creepiness. There is no denying that the 2010 production features a Macbeth who
is a suitable product of his time and place. The institutional sterility of Anthony Ward’s set
exudes a grimy feeling (Eckhardt, 2017). It is presented to the audience has the last-hope ward at

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hospital, with an emasculated and dying young soldier sees his life being measured out by
medicinal experts. Moreover, the set appears to be a charnel house with a backstage industrial
elevator for ominous use, the dining and the kitchen serving as interrogation rooms. It was only
convenient to introduce the witches as devilish nurses who speed the lives of patients to their
imminent deaths. In Shakespeare too, the witches were associated with all things wicked, dark
and precarious (Lorch, 2016). It is their vision, their ability to foresee the future that propels
Macbeth to embark upon the nasty journey, ultimately sealing his doom. It is important to note
that the witches see what Macbeth cannot see, hence his dependency on the creatures of
darkness. What is not seen by Macbeth becomes the driving force of his paranoia (Iuga, 2018),
the root of all his misgivings and the reason for his wrongdoings. Lady Macbeth sees is her
husband what Macbeth herself fails to identify and this is indicative of his unsound and unstable
nature. His vision is blinded with false ambition and he gropes in the dark for survival
(Altschuler, 2015).
The banquet scene of Act III is an amazing coup de theatre, both in Shakespeare and in Goold,
with Macbeth sees the ghost of Banquo, shaking is “gory locks” at him. In a slight deviation
from the original text, Macbeth in the film sees the ghost twice; once through his own eyes and
once through the vision of his guests. This reenactment might be perfectly detailed and devilishly
entertaining, it is far from necessary. The actor of the film Macbeth makes clear that the
character sees and hears things others cannot, although he does not have the insight to the self,
which is the source of all his tribulations (Tassi, 2018). The original text has Macbeth begging
forgiveness for his murder of the Cawdor’s Thane, and submits to his fate being uncertain of the
newly bestowed role. He appears to be more sensitive and emotional towards his surrounding
which is in sharp contrast to the film version. Goold chooses to modernize the character of

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Macbeth by modeling him on various historical figures of the 20th century like Hitler of Nazi
Germany, Stalin of Soviet Union and Mussolini of Italy. Another noteworthy aspect is that
Goold sticks to the Shakespearean dialect despite the contemporary and heavily modernized
setting. He omits few lines and incorporates some scene shifts that allows him to play with all
sorts of new ideas. Stewart is undeniably charismatic as an actor and aptly recognizes Macbeth’s
tragedy. The soliloquies delivered beautifully by the actor reflects a man who has realized the
extent to which his life has been rendered futile by his own misdoings. The outstanding
performances of the supporting roles deserve equal mention. The Porter, Ross and Macduff were
convincing enough to make the audience squeal with terror. The demonically powerful porter
scene is radically different from the original text, where Shakespeare had included the scene to
serve as a comic relief to the plot mounting in grim violence. Being true to its source, the film
makes the roles of the supporting characters and what is seen or not seen by them of central
importance to the theme and the understanding of the plot. The changes made are necessary in
terms of context and the modern setting. The most distinguishing alteration is the fact that unlike
the play, the film does not shy away from the gore, the brutal executions and the mass killings.
The Elizabethan stage has restrictions regarding the enactment of violence on stage but directors
of the 21st century have the liberty of screening such extremities.
Conclusion
It must be acknowledged that adaptations and translations cannot be good or bad, only different
and have to be perceived in different colors. Although it is necessary to have adequate
knowledge of the source text before watching the adapted version, any comparison between the
two might be inconclusive and ambiguous since different people have different takes on a
particular piece of work and strict adherence to the source material is both difficult and uncalled

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for. No other Shakespearean tragedy has been as frequently adapted as Macbeth and it is
interesting to note that neither of them bear much resemblance to each other. The essay
accurately illustrates the tactics employed by the director to impart new colors into a popular
text.

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