Task 3: Write an essay explaining how your opening scene articulates a theme of the play.
Theme
I wish to emphasize the ideas of balancing good and evil in Macbeth’s world as well as bravery and loyalty in the face of danger and the importance of both ideas which has been prevalent throughout the centuries, still is and will continue to be equally prevalent in the generations to come. As the idea of what is good and evil depends on one’s perspective as well as personal views on what justifies as good and evil, it is hard to justify, in Macbeth’s world, what would be socially accepted as what is good and bad.
However, thankfully, it is easier to justify why one should be brave and loyal even when wrought with disaster, especially in the rather chaotic world of Macbeth. Throughout the whole play, one can see why bravery and loyalty are important, i.e, having the bravery to oppress a tyrant even when chances of losing one’s life for rising against the tyrant king was high as Macduff and Malcolm had done, or even in the example of Macbeth--having the bravery to fight a battle till the very end even though the likelihoods of loosing and dying to the enemies were rocket-high, and having the willingness to fight in the battle not so as to gain power or popularity, but so as to show one’s strong allegiance to a nation and her sovereign. Yet, it is also important to note how the notion of good and evil--and the meanings that the individual characters had tagged on to ‘good’ and ‘evil’, affected the actions, thoughts, opinions and ultimately, decisions and choices that the characters made, and how those actions, thoughts, and choices affected other characters or caused some characters to do what they did in the play.
Setting and Set
For the background music, I had chosen the song Kукушка (Cuckoo) by Polina Gagarina for a particular reason--it shows how loyal and brave the soldiers were in fighting for their country. The soldiers were just small, unidentifiable individuals in a big army, insignificant cogs in a gigantic war machine, and as such, no one would take much notice of a few dead or missing soldiers. Yet, the soldiers chose to bravely fight on, even though they knew that they most likely would not return to their loved ones alive “Кто пойдëт по следу одинокому? Сильные да смелые головы сложили в поле в бою. Мало кто остался в светлой памяти” (Who's going to follow my lonely track?/The strong and brave laid down their lives./On the battlefield, in fight/Few of them remained in our memory) --showing precisely what Macbeth had done. Macbeth had taken the risk of potentially losing his life and fought on bravely and out of loyalty to King Duncan even after he and his men had been outnumbered by the enemy.
Whilst there were no other features of the set in Act 1.1 that showed the importance of bravery and loyalty, there are features that show how the idea of good and evil carries through the generations. The most common stereotype of witches is that witches only exist in the medieval period or in the time where people used swords to battle and wore fancy, heavy dresses in balls, not in the time--the current time--where women no longer dress in corsets and petticoats but are scantily dressed instead in shorts and sleeveless tops, where men no longer engage in sword-fighting. The general perception of good, that is, being kind and virtuous would almost generally remain the same through the ages—so would the idea of being evil. But in uncertain times, who can guarantee that what was deemed as correct when all was calm and peaceful would still remain so in chaos?
Characterization of the Witches
I wanted to bring about the idea that evil (which is what the witches represent in the play) will always exist, be it the past or the present, therefore, instead of dressing the witches up in their typical cloak and pointed hats with a broomstick and being stinky and ugly, I made them go against stereotypes and dressed them up immaculately and cleanly, the third witch even going so far as to “apply a touch of lipstick” to look her best as the three witches head towards the heath to “meet with Macbeth”. Besides, by dressing the witches up would go against expectations—it is in a way hinting at the theme of things being unexpected or not as usual—one does not expect a witch whose storybook features come with warts and greasy hair coupled with body odor to dress like a business lady.
Of course, one cannot expect the witches to be the total opposite of stereotypical witches, otherwise, the play would not make sense, and the witches would not fit the context of how witches are being portrayed in Macbeth, so some characteristics of the witches have to remain. Take, for example, their trademark eagerness to be evil and wreak chaos upon people or places, which was shown in how they nodded in agreement to each other’s suggestions and the delight that the third witch showed at the prospect of meeting Macbeth—as we all know, that meeting and subsequent meetings between Macbeth and the witches will prove disastrous for Macbeth as the witches seem to be indirectly giving Macbeth an incentive to kill King Duncan, Banquo, Fleance and defenseless Lady Macduff—therefore effectively retaining the evil side under all that “pretty woman” facade.