Polanski's Prophecies In Macbeth

The story of Macbeth is a classic tragedy written by William Shakespeare in the 17th century. Macbeth is a general in the army of King Duncan, as well as the Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and, for a short time, the King of Scotland. When three witches tell Macbeth three prophecies, and the first two come true, Macbeth is determined to make the third become reality as well. Tragedy occurs when King Duncan is murdered and Macbeth is pronounced the new king. Macbeth becomes an isolated individual and is eventually destroyed by his own arrogance. In Roman Polanski’s 1970 film Macbeth based on the play written by Shakespeare, Polanski adds scenes to the original story in order to make the film dark and sinister. The reason for Polanski making
After the first two come true and Macbeth is pronounced the Thane of Cawdor, he is determined to do anything it takes to become the reining King of Scotland. He knows, however, that the only way for him to become king is if the current King, Duncan, perishes. In Act 2 Scene 2 the ‘worthy’ Thane, with the help of his Lady, murders the king. During the 17th century it was illegal to show the death of a monarch on stage, because of this, Duncan’s death - just like the Thane of Cawdor’s - is not shown in the play, but only referred to as offstage action “I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?”(Shakespeare II.ii.15). Polanski, being the mentally maladjusted man he was, showed the death of Duncan “If you make a film about a murder, you have to show the murder…. If you use the screen as a medium, then what you tell has to be told by visual means.” (Dubois, 98). The scene starts off with Macbeth standing over King Duncan with a dagger. When Duncan wakes up and stares at Macbeth, Macbeth freezes and for a moment is hesitant on whether or not to kill the charismatic king. After a few seconds of doubt he slits Duncan’s throat as well as stabbing him multiple times. Polanski added this bloodthirsty scene to show how sinister and evil Macbeth was. Duncan’s death helps to show that Macbeth would
When something went wrong, things were repaired and restored. In this case, when Macbeth killed Duncan things got off track. When Macduff killed Macbeth, Malcolm became King, therefore restoring order to Scotland. The final scene of Polanski’s film is far more pessimistic than Shakespeare’s conclusion to the story. His film shows the modern day view of mankind, and the bad side of people. In The final scene of the movie Donalbain, Malcolm’s brother, is shown walking along the beach to see the three witches. This suggests that Donalbain is going to see the witches to get his own prophecies. It also suggests that Donalbain, like Macbeth, is going to cause chaos, along with the death of Malcolm - the new King. The ending of the movie is very dark and nothing like the happy ending that Shakespeare had written. Polanski’s ending leaves the movie with a final dark and sinister scene, implying that there is more trouble ahead for