{"id":5245,"date":"2022-04-13T13:13:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-13T13:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farefwd.com\/?p=5245"},"modified":"2022-04-13T13:13:24","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T13:13:24","slug":"the-tragedy-of-macbeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farefwd.com\/index.php\/2022\/04\/13\/the-tragedy-of-macbeth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tragedy of Macbeth"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Upon A Wild and Violent Sea<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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Macbeth <\/em>tells the story not only of one man\u2019s tragic downfall, but of how that resonates through his entire community.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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By Sara Holston<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Watching Joel Coen\u2019s The Tragedy of Macbeth <\/em>is like seeing a stage play on the big screen. The environments are built like sets, and while they evoke the eerie vastness and emptiness of the Scottish moors, you always get the sense that the world stops at the edge of the screen like it\u2019s the proscenium arch of a stage, rather than extending beyond the edges of the current shot. Even the lighting frequently evokes a spotlight\u2014Banquo\u2019s soliloquy is delivered, at times, almost through the fourth wall (as if addressing a live audience) after Banquo enters a circle of white light on an otherwise pitch-black screen. While certainly cinematic in scope, the film is yet in conversation with its theatrical roots.<\/p>\n

In translating Macbeth <\/em>from page to screen, however, one thing must necessarily be different: length. At two and a half hours or more, Shakespeare plays sit just on the edge of too long for a movie, so the filmmakers\u2019 decisions on what to cut\u2014or keep\u2014can bend the interpretation of the story in different directions. Though each adaptation of Macbeth <\/em>preserves different parts of the narrative, there is one scene that is almost universally cut. Act 4, Scene 3 seems, to be fair, an odd hitch in the story, taking us away from the downward spiral of the Macbeths and pausing the escalation toward war in favor of a beat in which Malcolm\u2014heir apparent to the throne of Scotland\u2014tests the loyalty of Macduff, the Thane of Fife. It is easy to cut this scene, focusing instead on the Macbeths\u2019 drama and allowing Malcolm and Macduff to return to Scotland at the climax of the film as if they have never been anything but determined to reclaim the throne. But it is a far more significant scene than it may, at first, appear.<\/p>\n

Macbeth <\/em>is one of those stories that everyone raves about, that most of us studied at some point in school\u2014at every turn it is a work that should blow us away. But while watching such an honored and successful man self-sabotage his way to notoriety and destruction is eerie, I often leave the movie theater after a Macbeth <\/em>adaptation feeling like the full weight of it didn\u2019t really land with me.<\/p>\n

Now, Act 4 Scene 3 doesn\u2019t satisfy this disappointment; I don\u2019t think all would be right in the world if it were simply added back in. But it encapsulates the larger political impact of Macbeth\u2019s actions that can often be overlooked in favor of the psychological drama. Macbeth <\/em>tells the story not only of one man\u2019s tragic downfall, but of how that resonates through his entire community; Macbeth\u2019s actions threaten to shatter the trust of Scotland\u2019s ruling class in the very political order in which they participate, and on which they rely. In the preceding scene we see a conversation between Lady Macduff and her cousin Ross, just before Lady Macduff and her son are murdered. Discussing Macduff\u2019s departure for England and the state of things in Scotland, Ross laments:<\/p>\n

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But cruel are the times when we are traitors
And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,
But float upon a wild and violent sea…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ross\u2019s description of the fear and uncertainty prevalent in their current political situation is realized by the lengths to which Malcolm goes just to assess Macduff\u2019s loyalty. The words and actions of the thanes of Scotland make clear just how much damage Macbeth has done even to those whom he has not killed, and the potential long-term ramifications if the thanes cannot find a way to trust a potential new king\u2014and vice versa\u2014even after Macbeth has been overthrown.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Coen\u2019s foregrounding of Ross alters, but at times enhances, the political theme by keeping it more centered on the drama of the Macbeths.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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This is not to say that I found The Tragedy of Macbeth<\/em> a disappointment on this front; Joel Coen makes other changes that preserve this thread of political import, most notably in elevating Ross to a far more significant role than in the play. If you\u2019re like me, you probably didn\u2019t remember Ross existed\u2014his role is pretty minor. Ross largely serves to fill out the ranks of the nobility and to carry relevant information between parties; it\u2019s Ross who brings King Duncan news of Macbeth\u2019s victories at the beginning of the play, who informs Lady Macduff of her husband\u2019s retreat to England, and who reveals to Macduff that his entire family has been slaughtered. In Joel Coen\u2019s film, Ross also appears in place of several other minor or unnamed roles, most notably that of the Third Murderer\u2014that mysterious figure who arrives, unexpectedly, to help Macbeth\u2019s hired assassins kill Banquo and Fleance.<\/p>

The Ross of The Tragedy of Macbeth<\/em> certainly appears to have his own agenda, and though the extent of it is never made entirely clear, it certainly has political overtures. In Coen\u2019s film, Ross stands watching as Duncan\u2019s sons plot their escape after their father\u2019s murder. After Banquo is killed, Ross (as the Third Murderer) stalks the hiding Fleance\u2014an intense scene, which cuts away suddenly after Ross catches the young boy. Ross notices and approaches a catatonic Lady Macbeth at the top of a staircase shortly before she is found dead at the bottom. Ross brings the crown and Macbeth\u2019s head to Malcolm, hailing the heir as King of Scotland. And, though a viewer unfamiliar with the source material might assume Ross killed Fleance earlier in the film, the final shots show him taking the boy out of the country\u2014the witches\u2019 promise that Banquo\u2019s heirs will be kings still to be fulfilled.<\/p>

The fact that the movie foregrounds Ross in this way alters, but at times enhances, the political theme by keeping it more centered on the drama of the Macbeths. As Ross shifts from one of Duncan\u2019s trusted advisors, to an active member of Macbeth\u2019s court, to a supporter of Malcolm, to Fleance\u2019s new escort\u2014always with a calculating, slippery ease that leaves his true loyalties unknown\u2014the shifting nature of political allegiances in Scotland, like navigating the unpredictable swells of a wild and violent sea, is all too clearly outlined. But rather than stepping away from the Macbeths, following Ross\u2019s movements between the players keeps our attention on the fact that Macbeth\u2019s actions and downward spiral are the epicenter from which the fractures extend.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Sara Holston<\/strong>\u00a0is an editor on an interactive story game in San Francisco, CA.<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Tragedy of Macbeth <\/strong>was written and directed by Joel Coen and had a limited theatrical release by A24 on December 25, 2021.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Macbeth tells the story not only of one man\u2019s tragic downfall, but of how that resonates through his entire 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