Mathbeth Essay

MACBETH ESSAY

Jenna Houghton | Year 10

“How and why does Macbeth change over the course of the film?”

Director Roman Polanski of the movie “Macbeth” (1971) uses many different techniques which powerfully explore the change undertaken by a Scottish general in the pursuit for authority and leadership. The movies accurately portrays the consequences of becoming greedy and over ambitious, sometimes to the point where the persona cannot distinguish good and evil, “let light not see my black and deep desires”. Polanski brutally challenges the audience with the honest actions of a once noble Macbeth who has a taste for the crown (to become a king) and will therefore take any action necessary to achieve it.

Unbridled desire combined with vaulting ambition is portrayed throughout Polanski’s movie, “Macbeth.” The films chilling truth towards the reality of a man driven only by a deep desire to rule is evident through Macbeth’s development as a character. The mental changes he undergoes as the story unfolds are brutal and haunting. Persuaded by wife, Lady Macbeth, to kill King Duncan for the throne, Polanski chooses to display Macbeths mental state, changing from a once kind, considerate young man, to a paranoid killer who begins to suffer from hallucinated (episodes due to his guilt from murders he has committed), “ Is this a dagger I see before me… A dagger of the mind, a false creation.” This mental shift is seen again towards the end of the movie as Macbeth slips into a deep depression after realising his actions where not worth the grief they have caused him, “Life is but a walking shadow…. It is a tale told by an idiot….. Signifying nothing.” The slow change experienced by Macbeth throughout the movie is clever as it is so slight the audience doesn’t quite realise, (until the end, when they can make the comparison) the ongoing deterioration of a once good character.

To act deceitful means to be guilty of misleading others, this is presented during the movie in...