FREE ESSAY ON MACBETH VERSIONS COMPARISON

MACBETH VERSIONS COMPARISON

MacBeth versions comparison essayThere are many differences between interpretations of
William Shakespeare's MacBeth. This essay wall contrast Shakespeare's original version
and a movie version by Roman Polanski produced in 1970. Three major differences will be
discussed.One difference between Shakespeare's and Polanski's version is the absence of
the scene in England in Polanski's version. In the Original MacBeth, MacDuff goes to
England to convince Malcolm to return and fight MacBeth. The scene of the longest of the
play; it is very drawn out and lengthy. Polanski simply eliminates this scene and shows
Malcolm back in Scotland. The reason I feel that Polanski did this is that the scene
detracts from the continuity and action of the play. The play is equally effective
without the scene, and more streamlined.Another difference between the original and
Polanski's version is the scene where MacBeth kills the king, Duncan. In the original,
Shakespeare was not allowed to show the death of a divine right ruler, so he showed
MacBeth coming out of the king's bedchamber after he had committed the murder. For
Polanski's version, however, he had no such limitation, and could show anything that he
chose, so he showed the actual murder of Duncan, where Duncan wakes up, and MacBeth cuts
his throat after stabbing him. The reason that Polanski inserted this scene was to show
how cold-blooded MacBeth was, and that he would do anything to achieve his goal of
becoming king.A third difference is the use of the letter that MacBeth writes to his wife
describing how he has become Thane of Cawdor and the witches' three predictions. In the
original, the letter was read by Lady MacBeth, and then not mentioned again. In
Polanski's version, Lady MacBeth takes out the letter after everything with her and her
husband's plan has gone wrong, reads it, and then kills herself. The reason that Polanski
did this is that the letter is a useful device to cause Lady MacBeth to kill herself. She
reads the letter, and it's all this happy news, but she and MacBeth are miserable, and
all the good things in the letter have gone awry.There are scenes also in Polanski's
version which are not even included in the original. One of these such scenes would be
the scene where the traitors from the war are being executed. They are brutally hung with
cast iron brackets on their neck. This scene is very successful in showing the brutal
treatment of traitors, the treatment that MacBeth would get if he was caught in his plan.
The original did not do such a good job on this.Another of these such scenes would be the
dreams that MacBeth has about Fleance killing him and Banquo helping him. Due to the
extreme lack of technology in Shakespeare's time, this was not possible. The dreams
sequence serves to show how haunted MacBeth's dreams are, and how worried he is about
losing the throne to Fleance because of the witches' predictions.There are many
differences between these two version of MacBeth, and each of them, I believe, serves
it's own purpose to enhance and better the play.