Comparing Two Different Productions of William Shakespeare's Macbeth

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Comparing Two Different Productions of William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Shakespeare and many other writers of the Elizabethan time used

soliloquies. The meaning of soliloquy is as follows, you share your

thoughts, and thus giving the audience further insight into your

characters and events. A soliloquy reveals a characters deepest

thoughts and fears. Macbeth soliloquies enable us to understand

Macbeth because a soliloquy indicates what a persons current thoughts

are about a certain situation at that time, or what the person is

thinking of doing at the minute. Throughout the three soliloquies we

see the steady progression where Macbeth goes from a moral, good man

to a murderous, evil man. I think that the RSC Production was far more

traditional, I thought this was much more effective. Overall I thought

the RSC put on a better production.

Before Macbeth starts soliloquy one, Lady Macbeth greats Duncan at the

gates of Macbeth Castle along with Malcolm, Donalbain and others. She

welcomes him by giving the impression that everything has been done

twice, and then done it again. That would say to someone that they

respect Duncan greatly and that they want to make a good impression,

when infact they are planning on killing him. In the Soliloquy we see

a somewhat nervous Macbeth. As the soliloquy continues we can see

Macbeth realising more and more that he is doing something wrong. You

can also see quite clearly the contrast between Macbeth's costume of

all black and Duncan's white costume, representing innocence. Even

Macbeth's hair is dark, it is black and slicked back whereas Duncan's

is white like the rest of his costume representing once again just how

innocent he is.

In the production by the RSC was much better than the BBC. RSC used

shadows and I thought it was an excellent effect as it shows Macbeth's

struggle with his conscience, his struggle between good and evil. We

can also see him sweating, something we don't see in the BBC's

production. In the RSC's production, the camera is fixed constantly on

his face whereas in the BBC's we can see the top half of his body.

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