Characters: Lady Macbeth and Macbeth
Lady Macbeth
I chose these colors for Lady Macbeth and named them accordingly because of things she says and does. I called the first color “ambition” because that’s what she is full of. Her ambition is stronger than Macbeth’s, yet she isn’t even the one who gets to rule. It is quite clear that she uses her influence over Macbeth to her advantage. Her ambition drives her to do so. It is also her ambition that eventually leads to her demise. The color is a deep purple because that is how I picture ambition in my mind. I named the second one “a guilty conscience” because her guilty conscience eventually got the better of her which led to her becoming mentally unstable. This also led to her committing suicide. I thought that this is important and often something that gets overlooked when we talk about Lady Macbeth. We always say that she’s ambitious, that she’s cruel and willing to kill to get what she wants, but we never really talk about what led to her death because she brought it upon herself. This, I believe is an important character trait. “A guilty conscience” is a dark green because green is often a color associated with something good, or something evil. I made it a darker green because it shows that there’s a part of her that is good, that is sane, and her soul isn’t just an empty black pit. A guilty conscience, while good to anybody looking from the outside, tends to be evil to the person it belongs to; it eats the person alive and eventually that paranoia and fear overtakes them. This is what happened to Lady Macbeth when it led to her demise. The third color is a red color a little too light to be blood. I called this “damned spot” because of Lady Macbeth’s famous “Out damned spot!” scene in the play. This was one of the first times we see that she is mentally unstable. It was also the part in the play I thought was a bit humorous (though I know that was not the intent) because she was basically confessing to every drop of blood spilled from when they murdered Duncan and the doctor and night maid was right there. Anyway, I intentionally made the shade too light to be blood because the blood on her hands she is referring to was just a fragment of her imagination, and it isn’t real blood at all. The fourth color is a light blue that I called “cleared of the deed”. I chose this because as she said after Macbeth killed Duncan “a little water clears us of this deed” she said. And it did to everyone else, but they both knew they were guilty, and that guilt began to get the better of them. I used this more for its irony in relation to the story than the quote itself. It is a light blue because blue is the color of water, and the people of Scotland see them as admirable, so white is the color that comes to me when I think of admiration. Light blue is the outcome of the two colors combined. The final color is like a salmon color and I called it “the serpent underneath” as in, “look like the flower, but be the serpent underneath”. I thought this was important to Lady Macbeth’s character because, again, it shows her ambition and her cruelty. I chose for this color to be salmon because pretty colors can be deceiving. Nothing is as it seems “fair is foul, and foul is fair”.
Macbeth
I thought these colors would be fit for Macbeth as well because, though it is tailored more towards Lady Macbeth, they suffered similar consequences for their actions together. The first was “ambition”. As I said with Lady Macbeth, this is a huge character trait for Macbeth. It was his ambition that caused him to kill Duncan and to kill Banquo. He has a thirst for power that is often overlooked because on the surface, it looked as though Lady Macbeth wanted all the power, which she did, but in the end it was Macbeth that did the deed. “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus” his fear in Banquo was of his line and that Fleance would become king as the Weird Sister had prophesied as they had brought Macbeth some truth. His ambitions got the better of him and he ordered hitmen to kill his best friend. “A guilty conscience” played a huge role in Macbeth’s life. This was more prominent in him than in Lady Macbeth. Banquo’s ghost for example, was nothing more than a shard off his subconscious. A result of his guilty conscience and his fear. After he killed Duncan, Macbeth’s guilty conscience was prominent as ever. He immediately had regrets for killing his “well-liked kinsman” saying he heard voices crying, “Sleep no more, Macbeth does murder sleep”. In Lady Macbeth’s “Out damned spot!” soliloquy, she was talking about the night Duncan was killed and the blood she had on her hands, but the blood was only in her mind and in her eyes. Macbeth had hallucinations himself. From when he was led by a dagger into Duncan’s chamber, to Banquo’s ghost. They were hallucinations that had to do with the people he killed in vain. “Damned spot” was to signify hallucinations, not just of Lady Macbeth, but of Macbeth also. “Cleared of the deed”, as I said with Lady Macbeth, is more of the irony because, though they were clear to everyone else, they knew they were guilty and they weren’t clear. “A little water clears us of this deed” said Lady Macbeth, yet it didn’t. Finally, “the serpent underneath” is all about deceit and the idea of “fair is foul and foul is fair” as nothing is as it seems. “Look like the flower, but be the serpent underneath it”. Hit them hard when they least expect it. Duncan felt safe, but he was far from it.
Scenes: Act I, Scene I; Act I, Scene III
The first, second and fifth colors are obviously about the witches famous, “fair is foul and foul is fair, hover through fog and filthy air”. I made “foul” a charcoal grey kind of color, and “fair” a light gray, almost white. I did this because nothing in the world is ever black and white which is kind of what the witches are saying in this quote. “Fog and filthy air” is a light blue/gray color because it isn’t really clear what it is, just as fog makes things unclear. This also goes back to the idea of nothing is as it seems. Because nothing is as it seems, everything is unclear. There is no clarity in the things we think and the things we see. The third color is called “all hail”. It is purple because, in many cultures, purple is the color of royalty. I chose this color to represent when the witches tell Macbeth that he will be Thane of Cawdor and King of Scotland. He was already Thane of Glamis, and when they told him he didn’t believe them until Duncan awarded him the title of Thane of Cawdor as well, delivering the news that the original Thane of Cawdor was a traitor. Anyways, I named this color “all hail” because that is what the witches were saying to Macbeth in this scene. The fourth color, and the last one I will be explaining, is called “instruments of darkness”. This is named after what Banquo told Macbeth about being wary of the Weird Sisters: “sometimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths”. The instruments of darkness refers to the Weird Sisters, as they changed the course of Macbeth’s life because his ambition got the better of him and his wife. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me/without my stir”
Macbeth as a whole
I chose to represent the different themes in Macbeth with these colors. The first is fear. Fear does strange things to people. It caused Macbeth to hire hitmen to kill Banquo, who was one of his best friends. Simply because he feared Fleance would put an end to his reign. His fears in Banquo ran so deep he was willing to sacrifice his friend for power. Fear was also prominent in the Banquet scene when Macbeth saw the ghost of Banquo and was cowering. The second theme I thought was really important was abuse of power. Macbeth not only uses his power, but abuses it as well. With great power comes great responsibility. No respected king puts a hit out on his friend, nor did they treat their servants and henchmen like garbage. There are many different ways he abuses his power. He goes to Fife, which is Macduff’s home, and slaughters everyone found. This also ties into violence because this abuse of power oftentimes included violence and blood being shed. Macbeth massacres everyone in Fife: men, women, and children alike. Out of all of these themes, none is more obvious than Lady Macbeth and Macbeth’s descent into madness. For Macbeth we see signs early. When he hallucinates the dagger before killing Duncan, and when he sees Banquo’s ghost. However, we don’t see it in Lady Macbeth really until the famous “Out damned spot!” scene where she is sleepwalking and pretty much confessing to her and her husband killing Duncan. Finally, guilt is another important recurring theme. Lady Macbeth and Macbeth both had the guilt of killing Duncan, but I think Macbeth had it harder because he is the one who did the deed. Lady Macbeth didn’t do anything except plant the bloody daggers on his Chamberlains. Macbeth also had the guilt of killing Banquo, and everyone in Fife that was slaughtered. That was all Macbeth’s doing. Even though Macbeth had it harder, Lady Macbeth’s guilt pushed her over the edge and she fell to her death. Nothing tears apart the soul like murder.
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