Macbeth Retold

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Good morning Mr Goodyear and fellow peers, as we know, in the study of Macbeth and Macbeth Retold, there are many themes which are and can be examined further, but, the theme of appearance versus reality as well as gender roles have been quite apparent in both the play and the film despite there being differences between the two. For starters, the play is composed in the seventeenth century and set in eleventh century Scotland while the film is composed and set in the twenty first century. And today, I will be discussing the idea of appearance versus reality as well as theme of gender roles. Despite the differences in context, appearance versus reality is one of the biggest themes that are portrayed in the study of both texts. In Macbeth,…show more content…
The strategically placed montages of Ella continuously washing her hands in between scenes also implies to the viewer the state of her mental wellbeing. The shot, which is a high angled close up, gives the audience a clear image of the entire sink, as well as her hands, making it easier for the audience to see that Ella is continuously washing clean hands. Prior to Duncan’s murder, Ella is dressed in dark coloured suits, rather than dresses, giving her silhouette and shadow sharper, straighter and harsher lines to illustrate an image of a strong, independent woman, this portrayal of Ella is reinforced further with her strong eye contact with Joe. However, her tough femme fatale façade is overlooked and stripped away after the murder when she is dressed in lighter, creamier colours and her eye contact is subdued, with her gaze even lowering at unsystematic intervals when she is communicating with Joe. While in Shakespearean times, sleepwalking would be considered “unnatural”, in the twenty first century, it is a common occurrence. Rather, the sleepwalking scene, it was replaced with the lipstick scene, changing it to fit in the twenty first century context. Therefore, despite the different context, the theme of appearance versus reality are explored in both Macbeth and Macbeth Retold by Lady Macbeth and Ella, who both desperately tried to live the perfect lives they fabricated and eventually the inner battle between appearance and reality ends with only
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