Essay on Macbeth: Macbeth and Human Condition

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The Human condition - Macbeth
What is the human condition? The human condition is feelings/emotions and actions that make people who they are and act the way they do. Aspects of the human condition are portrayed in Polanski’s film ‘Macbeth’. Some of these aspects are greed, guilt and ambition. We come across these aspects in our everyday lifestyle, but it’s rare that we pick up on the things that sometimes take control of our lives.
An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth is an aspect of the human condition which is displayed in Polanski’s film ‘Macbeth’, the need for greed is displayed all through the movie. Firstly we see Lady Macbeth demonstrate greed, and things people do for power and possession, by convincing her husband Macbeth into murdering King Duncan (King of Scotland) so Lady Macbeth could rein as Queen and Macbeth as King. When Macbeth is finally convinced to murder the King and he brutally stabs King Duncan in the throat many times we see the camera angles shift as we used to look up at King Duncan as he was the one in power, we watch the crown roll off his head and onto the ground, that is when we start to look down on King Duncan and up on Macbeth as he now is the right leader of the land. Macbeth gets away with killing the King as he frames it on the guards, as Macbeth gradually starts getting more and more greedy for possession he starts to murder people he was closest to, because he thought that they would become in the way of him being King, Macbeth sets out and gets men to kill his best friend Banquo and Banquo’s son Fleeance. Greed is a huge aspect in everyday life for people to desire the possession that they so humbly seek; greed is like a disease once you have a taste of what it’s like it soon takes over until you get what you want.
Guilt also plays a huge roll in Macbeth. In the first half of the movie we see Macbeth startling in fear as a ghost of his best friend that he murdered (Banquo) appears at the banquet, as we watch Macbeth quiver in fear and start to stumble over. The camera angle starts off with a low angle shot as we look up at Macbeth, suddenly the camera angle changes as Banquo’s ghost becomes more superior. We also see this happen to Lady Macbeth as her guilty conscience slowly starts eating away at her and she starts to confess to the murder of King Duncan whilst she is sleep walking/talking, she quotes; ‘what has the smell of blood still, all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little
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