Comparative Essay of Goold and Polanski Macbeth Films

Macbeth, like any play, is open to interpretation by the performers. Each separate performance is unique. The different stylistic choices made in performances of the play change the way that viewers see the characters and events. This means that while the events of the Goold and Polanski films are the same, they tell us slightly different stories. It is interesting to look at the two films in terms of their faithfulness to, and their divergences from the original text, and the effects that these choices have on their viewers. The first clear point of interpretation is the setting of the play. Polanski chose to remain true to the play’s original setting, in 11th century Scotland. The costumes, behavior of the characters, and sets depict†¦show more content†¦In the Polanski film, Macbeth himself is the determined, ambitious driving force behind the events that take place, with Lady Macbeth there mainly to support him. The depictions of the witches were also quite dissimilar. Polanski’s depiction of the witches as hideous crones is true to Elizabethan society’s idea of them, and therefore very similar to how they would have appeared in performances during Shakespeare’s time. To a modern audience, however, warty, cackling witches are borderline ridiculous. Goold chose to modernize the witches as much as he did the rest of the play, and have the witches be disguised as nurses, which allowed them to plausibly be near the other characters, and allowed him to combine a couple of scenes into one. Goold clearly made an effort for his witches to be genuinely alarming for even a modern, horror-movie accustomed audience, and succeeded. The alien nature of the witches was made clear by both films. As a play, Macbeth is intended to be interpreted differently by different directors, which allows each performance to be unique. Polanski used the play’s original setting, while Goold placed the story in the 20th century. The cast of the Goold film stayed closer to how the characters were written by Shakespeare, while Polanski’s cast portayed the main characters slightly differently, with more emphasis given to Macbeth than Lady Macbeth. Polanski’s witches wereShow MoreRelatedMacbeth Comparative Essay1150 Words   |  5 PagesThe Power Couple Macbeth Comparative Essay Word Count: 1147 In Western culture today, it is a widely accepted fact that men and women have equal power in a marriage; whereas in Elizabethan times, a woman was dominated by her husband and she would have very little control over her life. The leading omnipotent couple in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth have a compelling marriage with a power dynamic that is beyond the boundaries set by society at the time in which he wrote the play. The directors