The most ordinary things can be powerful and have great meaning if we look at them in a different way. With Macbeth Noir, I was able to relate objects in my everyday life to the reading and perceive them in a new light.
*L is for left, M is middle, etc. to represent the columns. The numbers represent rows.
1L: “Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure, For goodness dare not check thee.” -Macduff (Act 4/Scene 3)
Explanation: The morning sunlight in this picture is dark and deep, just like the sunrise in the morning after Duncan’s murder was tainted by the nature of what took place the night before.
2L: “For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble” -Second Witch (Act 4/Scene 1)
Explanation: The bottle in the picture looks like it is an ingredient being poured into the witches’ potion.
3L: “... look like the innocent flower, but be the serpent under it" -Lady Macbeth (Act 1/Scene 5)
Explanation: In a normal light, these flowers are beautiful. But when a different side of them is revealed through a Noir filter, they look deadly and dark like Lady Macbeth.
1M: “My way of life Is fall'n into the sere, the yellow leaf, And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have, but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath” -Macbeth (Act 5/Scene 3)
Explanation: From this angle, the leaves look like a full garden, but one that is colorless and dreary which reflects Macbeth’s garden of life.
2M: “They hailed him father to a line of kings. Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown” -Macbeth (Act 3/Scene 1)
Explanation: I am particularly close to this picture and line because it hits home for me. The picture I took was of the skyline of a neighborhood in Burma that I took from my grandparents’ house. To tourists who come to visit, the country is depicted as ‘quaint’ and ‘exotic’. Really, it has good and bad things and is no different from any other place on Earth. I was reminded of the quote “not all that glitters is gold”. The life Macbeth was prophesied seemed like something out of a dream, but in reality, it had its own downfalls and shortcomings that he couldn’t see at first. Similarly, with Noir photography, this part of the city is seen for what it is: a kingdom of faded glory that is neither perfect nor all that outsiders chalk it up to be, but is called home nonetheless.
3M: “Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell” -Macbeth (Act 2/Scene 1)
Explanation: The sun shining through the clouds looked like a divine message being delivered to anyone who was able to hear it. Whether this message is good or bad is up for the viewer to interpret.
1R: “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir” -Macbeth (Act 1/Scene 3)
Explanation: The tracks in the sand in this picture look like they are being stirred to form those particular patterns. This is similar to the patterns that appear in Macbeth’s life after many other outcomes are shifted around.
2R: “It was the owl that shrieked, the fatal bellman Which gives the stern’st good-night.” -Lady Macbeth (Act 2/Scene 2)
Explanation: The picture of a lonely bird in a tree matches the somber mood of Lady Macbeth’s statement. It could also be interpreted as the owl itself that cried signaling death.
3R: (Act 5/Scene 3)
“There is ten thousand–” -Servant
“Geese, villain?” -Macbeth
“Soldiers, sir.” -Servant
Explanation: The treeline in the background of this image resembles the scene in the movie where army disguised as trees makes its way over the horizon, much to Macbeth’s surprise and fear.