Similarities Between Macbeth and the Film, A Simple Plan

Instead of Macbeth being Thane of Glamis, he is a high-class chef of a well-renowned restaurant in the middle of London. The environment in Shakespeare Retold has changed from a Shakespearean era to the 21st century. Both Macbeth and Joe have high positions that will eventually lead to their downfall. Both the play and the film emphasize on the same values and they demonstrate how ambition and greed drive a human to their insanity and madness. For example, in Shakespeare Retold, Joe was introduced as a kind, jovial person who as a chef himself taught his fellow cooks how to properly make food. His desire to secure his throne, in this case, the main chef, made him disoriented and was breaking plates, and burning food, something he wouldn't do before. The loving aura changed and it was just filled with chaos, in which the environment was not a place where his workers wanted to be. The change of scenery from the kitchen to an ominous night was effective in such that viewers could see that it meant something bad was about to happened. Lastly, at the end of the film, the kitchen in a highly renowned restaurant was not as luminous as before. The lights were turned off by Joe, and this is where we could see that he was beginning to shut himself down.

In Shakespare’s play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s destiny is formed by her own actions through mind and free-will. In act I, Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to murder Duncan, even though Macbeth was strongly against it. Lady Macbeth is very successful at persuading him to go against his better judgment. She entirely changes the stereotype of women being kind and caring in the first act. After Macbeth writes home telling of his murderous plans, Lady Macbeth begins talking to evil spirits. Because women often lack the ruthlessness to kill someone, Lady Macbeth asks the spirits to make her male. One of the most vivid descriptions of Lady Macbeth’s wickedness is directly after Macbeth announces to her he does not want to kill Duncan. This speech symbolizes Lady Macbeth’s evilness. She is ruthless, because of her evil accounts for the murders that occur throughout the play. Lady Macbeth convinces her husband to commit murders that will make them king

Lady Macbeth appears evil, but this is proof of her devotion and drive to assist Macbeth rise to the throne. Macbeth is doubtful about their plan to kill King Duncan; however, Lady Macbeth bombards him with comments that question his courage. She goes as far as telling him his love his worth nothing if he refuses, which proves her to be dominant and controlling using his own weakness against him. His love for her. The fact that she belittles his confidence, insults his abilities, and questions his manhood & ambitions showing how manipulative she can be, but also wise because it worked in her favour. She said to him “Screw your courage to the sticking place” (1.7.60). Because Lady Macbeth manages to drive Macbeth to Duncan’s death, this shows viewers that Lady Macbeths own ambition is the real driving force behind most of Macbeth’s actions, because of his strong dedicated love for her.

Macbeth is a play about a Scottish general (Macbeth) who receives a prophacy from three witches that states that one day, he wil become the king of Scotland. This makes Macbeth power hungry so he decides to murder the current king of Scotland, Duncan. As people grow more and more suspicious of who killed Duncan, Macbeth is forced to commit more murders in order to protect himself from being exposed. This leads to him becoming filled with paranoia and guilt, which ultimately is his major downfall. Shakespeare wrote this play in 1606 to make people realize that excessive ambition can have terrible consequences. Both the play and the movie incorporate murders into telling the story of Macbeth, but they do so in different ways.

In the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is both equally ambitious and evil as she urges her husband to kill King Duncan in order to fulfill the witches’ prophecies by gaining social power on the throne as king and queen. Lady Macbeth calls upon the spirits to give her emotional strength in order to help her husband go through with the murder plot, “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts! Unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty,” (1.5.39-42). She asks the spirits to take

When comparing the book Macbeth by Shakespeare, and the movie Macbeth directed by Justin Kurzel a few differences occur. One difference being the order in which the witches presented in the novel and movie. In the book, the witches are presented in the first act and first scene, whereas the witches in the movie are shown after Macbeth’s fight scene. Also in this scene, the witches say the “Fair is foul and foul is fair” chant separately, whereas in the book the witches say this chant in unison at the end of the scene. The reasons behind these changes vary, from making more logical sense to other to how “creepy” the director could lay the movie out. Although in the book version of Macbeth the chant the witches say in unison makes more sense because of its purpose of foreshadowing for what later happens in Macbeth, the director uses this scene to incorporate a spooky feeling towards the beginning of the movie, primarily using their tones and physical appearance to portray the book, rather than using the meaning of the words to portray the book.

The writer, Shakespeare, illustrates to the audience that the consequences do not just affect the person who have the ambitions, but it also affects the people around them. He does this by expressing the ambition through the characters of Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown to be ambitious and their ambition feeds off of each other. Macbeth is initially shown to the audience as a brave and selfless soldier who is loyal to his king till the day he dies. But, once Macbeth hears the prophecy of the three witches’, (that he will become the King of Scotland), Macbeth changes. He develops a deep, dark and horrible ambition of ruthlessly murdering the king and taking his place. Macbeth then writes to Lady Macbeth telling her of his ambitions. This leads to Lady Macbeth provoking Macbeth’s ambitions instead of telling him to forget about it. As she provokes Macbeth the audience can clearly see that this woman is bad news. “Was the hope drunk?Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?... and wakes it now, to look so green and pale which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I

Lady Macbeth has the power over her husband to persuade him into doing anything she requests. She manipulates Macbeth with incredible efficiency by overruling all of his thoughts and changing his perspective on the present. Even though the many tasks that need to be completed are difficult to understand why they need to be done, Lady Macbeth will always convince Macbeth to do it. Her husband often tells her that she has a “masculine soul” which is obvious due to her murderous and envious actions. When the time came to kill king Duncan, Macbeth believes that his wife has gone insane and tells her that the crime they were about to commit was a horrible idea. As a result of his questioning, Lady Macbeth says that executing the crime will show his loyalty to her. On the night of the assassination Lady Macbeth watched the guards of the castle become drunk and unaware of what was going on. Lady Macbeth sent her husband into the castle to kill King Duncan. The married couple fled the scene leaving the guards covered in the evidence. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are stained with the blood of their victims and the feeling of guilt in their stomach.

William Shakespeare once stated, “Temptation is the fire that brings up the scum of the heart.”(William Shakespeare) Although slightly bleak, many works of art have this similar idea. Through this, similarities are found concerning aspects of each work. Differences occur in the protagonist’s own personal journey on the path of temptation. Undeniably, this parallel is found within William Shakespeare’s own infamous play, Macbeth and the two-time Oscar- winning film, A Simple Plan. Macbeth is fighting for the honor of kingship even though he is not liable to inherit the crown and only becomes acquainted with the idea through a prophecy of three witches. Hank Mitchell, the protagonist of the movie, is presented with 4.4 million dollars in an

Macbeth informs his wife Lady Macbeth of the previous events through a letter. She is ecstatic when realising one of the predictions from the witches has already come true. She sets her mind on obtaining the throne for her husband by any means necessary. Lady Macbeth also has a strong desire for power but can only gain this through her husband. She becomes the driving force behind the wicked deed of murdering the King. She summons upon evil spirits to make sure nothing will stand in the way of her plan:

“ Human nature at times is unfortunately very ugly and I learned that the world can be a very

Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill king Duncan, so she can live her dream life. “And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man”(Macbeth 1.7.50-51). This quote explains how Lady Macbeth is trying to persuade her husband in doing the death of king Duncan. One characteristic that sticks out about lady Macbeth, Is that she is a smooth talker to whom she knows she can convince in doing what she won’t do. She tells Macbeth what he wants to hear for her own fame. “And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep”(Macbeth 1.7.61). While Macbeth is shocked and frightened about Lady Macbeth’s thoughts. She explains to him that king Duncan’s death will not be known of them, As why they do it while he is sleeping. Lady Macbeth tells him the future they will have if he does her plan. Now Scotland gets turned upside down. Macbeth kills king Duncan against his will. Lady Macbeth talked Macbeth into killing king Duncan so she would not have to live with the quilt of doing the murder. Lady Macbeth’s plan starts to unravel, As they hear a voice from another room. Macbeth is so out of sorts, that he has left the bloody dagger he use to kill king Duncan at the scene of

Immediately, after reading Macbeth’s letter, Lady Macbeth’s malevolence urges her to plot the murder for the king. She decides to encourage Macbeth and calls for evil spirits to aid her brutal plans, “Come, you spirits… you murd’ring ministers… You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night”. Her talk about defeminising herself and making her the superior amongst the couple, “That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here”, suggests Macbeth is weak and powerless in her presence. She implicates her husband of not being physically impotent but soft hearted and sentimental. She confronts him of this and warns him of his manliness and cowardice. She uses these various, manipulative strategies (challenging his manhood, being more aggressive, and defeminising

At the very beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is provoked by the letter she receives by Macbeth and starts plotting the murder of Duncan. She also wishes she were a man such that she could commit the murder all by herself saying so in Act 1 Scene 5, “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty” (Macbeth 1.5.36-52). She appeals to these spirits to remove all aspects of her femininity and seeks to gain power through the prophecy of the witches. Her fear about the ability of her husband to commit the murder is subdued in her designated gender. Lady Macbeth manages her feminine power through her sensuality and pretended weakness through her fainting streak at the notice of Duncan’s death. Manipulation, usually through sexuality is often depicted as the source of women’s power still Lady Macbeth uses this power of hers to commit murder, a masculine demonstration of power. Lady Macbeth in her soliloquy about the planning of Duncan’s death refers to her husband as an individual who plays honestly and does not engage in wrongdoing.

With the visit to King Duncan, the King announces that his son Malcolm will be heir to the throne. In Macbeth’s mind, all he can think about is murdering the King and all that will come along with it. Macbeth sends a letter to his wife telling of all that has happened and to prepare for the King’s visit. In order to keep the murder in her mind she doesn’t want anything to get in her way, so she even goes to the point of seeking evil and not wanting to be a women-afraid of the feminine ways which will interfere in the murder. When Lady Macbeth says, “Come, you spirits/ That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; (I v ll. 44-47) it shows how far Lady Macbeth is willing to go to make sure her husband and herself gets to the top. She even goes to the point to call upon the spirits to unsex her and fill her with cruelty to make sure that here feminine ways don’t cause the plan to go wrong.