Analyzing Lady Macbeth's Speech
I prefered the first representation of the speech, mainly because of the effectiveness of the actress’ tone and pauses. The scene started off with the sound of the crows, which immediately set the mood for the whole speech, preparing the audience for something dreary. The background in the scene also played into the tone and mood of the speech. I liked how it was in a dark hall, with some small spots of light. The actress was able to portray Lady MacBeth’s character by putting extra emphasis on important words. She used this technique when she expressed, “And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull / Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood” (I.iii.40-41). After finishing the first line, the actress says ‘of’, but then pauses for a few seconds.
Then, she puts emphasis on the words ‘direst cruelty’, which works very well because it stresses how cruel and inhuman Lady MacBeth really is. She uses pauses and emphasis throughout the whole quote to convince the audience of her truly evil intentions. While the audience can tell that she is an evil person just from the words, the way the actress emphasis individual phrases added seriousness and gravity to what she was saying. Another aspect of the acting in the first example that helped capture the mood of the scene was the actress’ hand gestures towards the end of the clip. When she says the lines, “That my keen knife see not the wound it makes” (I.iii.50), she raises her right hand to shoulder level, similar to the way she envisions killing Duncan. This was very successful in enhancing the quote as it added a visual representation, while being subtle enough to keep the audience’s attention on the actual words. On the contrary, the reason I did not feel like the second scene captured the tone was because of the movement and gestures. Right from the beginning, the actress starts moving and turning around, which was unnecessary and took the attention away from the lines. Similarly, towards the end of the quote, when she says, “Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark” (I.iii.51), the actress starts to raise her arms and stand up. I found this very distracting and felt like it made me focus more on her standing up then the lines and their significance.
Then, she puts emphasis on the words ‘direst cruelty’, which works very well because it stresses how cruel and inhuman Lady MacBeth really is. She uses pauses and emphasis throughout the whole quote to convince the audience of her truly evil intentions. While the audience can tell that she is an evil person just from the words, the way the actress emphasis individual phrases added seriousness and gravity to what she was saying. Another aspect of the acting in the first example that helped capture the mood of the scene was the actress’ hand gestures towards the end of the clip. When she says the lines, “That my keen knife see not the wound it makes” (I.iii.50), she raises her right hand to shoulder level, similar to the way she envisions killing Duncan. This was very successful in enhancing the quote as it added a visual representation, while being subtle enough to keep the audience’s attention on the actual words. On the contrary, the reason I did not feel like the second scene captured the tone was because of the movement and gestures. Right from the beginning, the actress starts moving and turning around, which was unnecessary and took the attention away from the lines. Similarly, towards the end of the quote, when she says, “Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark” (I.iii.51), the actress starts to raise her arms and stand up. I found this very distracting and felt like it made me focus more on her standing up then the lines and their significance.