Comparing Three Productions of Macbeth

A detailed Summary of Comparing Three Productions of Macbeth

The last moments of a production are important because they can greatly alter the audiences' interpretation of the entire play. This is especially true in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. A number of unanswered questions such as whom is responsible for Macbeth's fate and whether peace is restored to the kingdom, gather at the end of the play Macbeth. In each of the different productions, directors Orson Wells, Roman Polanski, and Trevor Nunn allude to these answers.

Shakespeare's play ends with Malcolm saying to his kinsman:

We shall not spend a large expense of time

Before we reckon with your several loves

And make us even with you. My Thanes and kinsmen,

Henceforth be Earls, the first that ever Scotland

In such an honor named. What's more to do,

Which would be planted newly with the time,

As calling home our exiled friends abroad

That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,

Producing forth the cruel ministers

Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,

Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands

Took off her life; this, and what needful else

We will perform in measure, time, and place.

In order to become the next king, the previous king must die. In order to become the next in line for the kingdom, that person must contain enough ambition to do whatever proves necessary to gain that position. Because Macbeth proves an ambitious and well-skilled warrior, King Duncan crowns him Thane of Cawdor. The sergeant proudly says, "For brave Macbeth -well he deserves that name-...unseamed him [the slave Macdonwald] from the nave to th' chops" (1.2. 16). Primarily, King Duncan rewards Macbeth for his ambition and murdering capabilities on the battlefield and calls him "noble" (1.2. 67) however, later when Macbeth takes these same actions off the battlefield, his actions lead to a fatal punishment. Though Polanski's version also alludes to a cyclic pattern in history, his production indicates that the witches control this cycle, while Nunn leaves the role of the witches insignificant in comparison to the age-old cycle of the ambitious using bloodshed to obtain the kingdom.

A deep and dark sounding music plays in the background while the witches silently and motionlessly peer at the castle unbeknown to the others in the kingdom. After staring at the castle for a few moments, one witch says to no one in particular, "Peace! The charms wound up." The witch's statement at the end of this scene answers Shakespeare's ambiguity by showing Macbeth as a victim of the witch's charm. Macbeth merely plays out his role in the "charm" or spell that the witches confess to placing on the kingdom, and now that Macbeth's life ends, so ends the charm.

Orson Well's version could not have been more different in its assertion of the future of the kingdom. Wells proves this notion that peace restores itself in the kingdom by adding the witches to the last scene and assigning them the actual word "peace" followed by "the charm's wound up." In a matter of seconds and with using only five simple words, Wells contrives an ending for the production that unarguably connotes that peace is restored. The witches declare that their past actions stood as merely a part of a spell that they placed on Macbeth, not the kingdom, and now that the spell ran its course and Macbeth lies dead the kingdom may resume to its normal routine of peace.

Roman Polanski supports this same theory that peace will not be restored to this kingdom. In the last scene, Polanski highlights the witches' prophecy of Banquo's descendants becoming king by showing Danalbain gimp after the witches. Presumably the witches will tell him that his lineage will not that succeed the throne, but instead another family will eventually take over the monarchy. Certainly, this prediction will not please Donalbain. As Wells shows in his production, the crown and the sword lie closely related. Since Donalbain stands so close to the throne, undoubtedly his ambitions led him to the witches, and he desires to hear what lies in his future concerning the kingdom and its throne. Wells' production shows how the ambitious eventually take up their sword in order to obtain the throne, and Polanski plays on this same thought by alluding to the idea that once Donalbain hears that neither he nor his bloodline will succeed the throne, he will take action against this destiny. His actions will not allow for peace in the kingdom.

Shakespeare's play also alludes to a cyclic kingdom in the last scene. With the battle newly won, Malcolm says to his people that he will repay those that fought on his side and make "my thanes and kinsmen,/ Henceforth be earls" (5.9.62-63). His speech sounds significantly similar to those words and actions taken by his f

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