Macbeth's Expectation Of Power In Film

William Shakespeare’s timeless work of art; Macbeth, is so intertwined in the fabric of our media landscape. The extent to which it touches so many people around the world, makes it a great piece to analyze because, every production is likely to be forced to be unique and entrancing. In 2006, Australian director Geoffrey Wright put together and directed a production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but with a modern adaptation. In this essay, I will argue that the aspect of power in this film is shaped by the modernity of the film, the sexuality of the witches and Lady Macbeth, and the weapons that are used to commit the crimes. I will also analyze the cinematic choices made by Wright in producing the film. In analyzing what power looks like in

With her emasculating and insulting Macbeth’s manhood to manipulate him into murdering King Duncan. In the beginning of the film Macbeth is the unsettled and nervous one and Lady Macbeth is the calm and calculated one. Near the end of the film, the power relationship appears to reverse as Lady Macbeth becomes psychotic and over ridden with guilt from what she has done and sanctioned to be done. Here is an interesting quote from an article analyzing how dictators and totalitarian regimes come to be from a psychoanalytic perspective. This quote specifically talks about gangs; “A perverse system of morality is created, which as in criminal gangs serves to defend the totalitarian state and to protect it from the collapse which would result from an awareness of guilt” (Temple). This reasoning provides an explanation for why the switch in power occurs in this film and in the play in general. If someone has the capacity to feel guilt, then they cannot serve as the leader of a totalitarian state, which is what the Melbourne gang scene in Macbeth is playing out to be. Linking this reasoning back to the Duncan murder, Macbeth may have needed to cover his face to avoid feeling guilty. So, if this reasoning follows, then it makes sense that when Lady Macbeth starts to become guilty that she loses her power over