William Shakespeare's Macbeth and Brian Clark's Whose Life is it Anyway

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Accompanying Write-up

The theme of our presentation is "Attitudes towards Death". Two of the

chosen pieces, "Macbeth" (William Shakespeare) and "Whose life is it

anyway?" (Brian Clark), are both relevant to Death. In "Macbeth",

Macbeth has just killed Duncan and is racked with guilt and anxiety.

Lady Macbeth, co-perpetrator in the crime, is convincing him that it

was the correct thing to do and mocking his fears. The play is a

tragedy and shows a negative attitude towards death, with the death

being in the brutal murder. The mood created by this and the knocking

in the scene is very tense. Macbeth's guilt and anxiety add tension

and suspense; which collide with Lady Macbeth's false confidence to

provide a confused and expectant mood. The audience is gripped by

concern as they await Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's fate, whether good or

bad.

"Whose life is it anyway?" is in most ways a very realistic play, with

a positive attitude towards Death. For Ken, Death is an escape from

his disability. It is a mercy for him, to be rescued from his unhappy

life. The mood created in the scene is of great expectance as Ken

awaits the Judges sentencing and verdict. The issue of euthanasia is

of great importance throughout the scene, showing how the play is

testing people's morals. The morals in Macbeth are simply those around

the idea of murder.

We presented "Whose life is it anyway?" in a realistic, modern style.

The exception to this is that the Judge walks about on the stage this

would not normally happen in a real court scene (the Judge would

remain seated) but it was felt that this was necessary to make the

scene more interesting for the audience. Besides, our scene was not in

a real court room; we used rostra to display the raised area would the

judge should sit - but apart from that, our court comprised of one

chair on which Ken sat. The alternative would be two very stationary

characters, providing little interest for the audience - although it

would focus the audience attention onto the speech and the actual

case. The language is modern and understandable with little thought,

as it would come naturally to modern day audiences. The scene also

features other aspects that would not normally be associated with a

representational piece of drama, such as the Judge's asides, when he

addresses the audience and gives his verdict of the case.

"Macbeth", on the contrary, uses very elevated language, of that era

(Elizabethan). The scene is based around a realistic topic, and is

acted to suit, with very few representational aspects.

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