|
|
This is only a preview of the paper
Click here to register and get the full text.
Existing members click here to login
|
|
|
Lady Macbeth’s Scene
This next scene in my opinion is the most significant scene in the play in terms of character development, because we see a tremendous change in Lady Macbeth’s character.
Until this point Macbeth has been tormented with visions, nightmares and disturbances in his sleep while Lady Macbeth scolds him for his weakness. Now the audience witnesses the way in which the murders have affected Lady Macbeth as well. ... She’s going insane, so Lady Macbeth on stage will have to appear to be going insane on stage. It’s probably the hardest scene to act out in the whole play, because Lady Macbeth is going through so many emotions. ... Lady Macbeth also has to be conveyed as being very guilty, because we see her before the murder, where she didn’t really understand what she was letting herself in for, and after the murder where she gradually becomes a nervous wreck and can’t believe what she’s let herself in for.
Earlier on in the play Lady Macbeth shows that she has no experience of this sort of thing, because she says that “a little water will clear us” of Duncan’s murder. ... What she learns in this scene is how the murder has really affected her inside, and we see the full horror of it on stage, which must be conveyed powerfully. ... This is also a dramatic sense of irony, because Lady Macbeth here is quite the opposite of what she was earlier.
Shakespeare cleverly uses this scene to review all the past atrocities that Macbeth has committed before the final battle, so that the audience is clearly aware of Macbeth’s brutalities. After reading all of the first four acts, some of the audience could forget some of Macbeth’s awful acts, so this scene is to really show all of Macbeth’s damage, and why we should think he deserves to die.
The audience should be full of pity for Lady Macbeth, because in this scene she should be seen as a weak and pathetic character who is at an end. Her hands are ‘covered in blood’, and we can’t help but feel sorry for her, because her husband has committed such inhumane deeds which she started, but now she has lost her husband and has nothing much left to live for apart from insanity, so the audience has to feel sorry for Lady Macbeth. In her sleepwalking, Lady Macbeth plays out the washing theme that runs throughout the play. ... Earlier Macbeth is doing this, and says “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand”, so now it’s as if Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have come together into one person who has all of their problems combined. ... When Lady Macbeth is coming you two should be able to watch her coming down the dark passage through the half open door, and she will be carrying a single candle, so there will be an effect of a ‘ghost’ in white almost floating towards them. ... Doctor should be wearing a black outfit to show he’s slightly insignificant in this scene, and the gentlewoman is dressed in white to show that he means no harm, which isn’t an ironic sense unlike Lady Macbeth’s clothing. Lady Macbeth is wearing white for an ironic sense in innocence, because sleep is often associated with innocence, and she for obvious reasons is not so innocent.
Approximate Word count = 2754
Approximate Pages = 11
(250 words per page double spaced)
|
|
|
|
|
|