MacBeth and Throne of Blood 11/13/08

Good morning,

Yesterday's class we discussed the three witches in Macbeth and the meaning behind the opening scenes of Shakespeare's play. I must reiterate that although I do see the point of many of my fellow classmates that the three witches are simply telling the future, I feel that those three witches are indeed evil and although they can see the future, their contradictory statements and odd word usage seemed to be deliberately professed in a way that confused the opposite party. Lady Macbeth also played a very big role in Macbeth's fate. She has always been power-hungry and truly wanted to be Queen. As Macbeth's wife, she has a lot of sway with her husband and has different, cunning ways of getting what she wants. Using the witches statements as support only made Lady Macbeth's position stronger. With that said, without the witches help, I do not believe that Lady Macbeth alone could have convince Macbeth to murder many different people including the King in order to gain power.

Each film based on Shakespeare plays (specifically Macbeth) has a different way of portraying each character. The way one expresses each character and their personality can shape the entire feel of the performance. With that said, in the case of Throne of Blood, I do believe that the characters, specifically Lady Macbeth did an excellent of portraying an evil, cunning woman who knows exactly what she wants from her husband and how to get it. She had Macbeth in the palm of her hand every step of the way. I did appreciate this version and could see myself using a unconventional version of a Shakespeare play such as Thrown of Blood or Ran in my future classroom.