3.2 Polanski's "Tragedy of Macbeth" (1971)

I have selected the extract from Roman Polanski's "The Tragedy of Macbeth" (1971). It's very interesting, that in Polanki's interpretation Macbeth carries less weight of fault than I would guess from the original play, to the point that the director considers it to be the character's tragedy (as if he himself did not cause tragedy for others and even for the entire land!) You can feel it from the opening scene of the film, when the three ugly witches set up the spell in the deserted place. The first object to enter the frame is the magic stick, which draws a circle (symbol of magic, lack of choice). We then see hands which dig a hole in the mud, where they put a hangman's noose (symbol of crime and punishment), a chopped off blue arm holding a bloody knife, which projects Macbeth as a victim rather then convict. The weird witches spill some more blood (spell and spit) on top of the hidden killing arm, which means that more people are to suffer from this wicked spell. The witches leave with a squeaky sound of rolling cart (like a hanging body swinging in the air on the wooden gibbet), and we get to see Polanski's vision of the "deserted place": reflective surface, as if they walk on water, which symbolizes their magic nature. The place is gray and lifeless, smoky (hell) and foggy (stench) - the place one would hardly like to find himself. Besides few words by the witches we can hear screams of  crazy birds, who feel the fear (the place is so remote, that only a crazy bird can reach it). I am looking forward to watching this film. Polanski is an arguable character and personality, but he's got what he's got - an incredible talent for directing and irresistible attraction of depicting.

3.1 Macbeth by punchdrunk: Sleep No More

Punchdrunk production inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth is an experimental theatrical performance which has risen a wave of contradictory response - from questioning its artistic value to true admiration. Theatrical experiment takes place in an abandoned building, and the spectators are not assigned a seat. As they enter the space of the show, they are free to wander wherever they like and leave whenever they wish. Many return to the show, because when they leave first time, they are still extremely confused as of what happened to them this night:) Incredible set design and costumes, interactive acting (where one never knows whether a person in the building is an actor or spectator) lets one fully dissolve into the experience and feel the inspiration of the director of the show. I would call it a "hyper play", just like a hyper text or hyper link. You enter the mysterious and frightening imagination of an extremely diverse and creative team, it's like collective subconscious, its like a group nightmare, it's like nothing you have ever seen before.

Just like Lady Macbeth could not find peace and fall asleep after provoking her husband for the bloody dids, so will you not be able to find yourself in Morpheus' embrace. Don't try sleeping pills, as you might get stuck in your own nightmare for a long time. Look at the photo above - lonely, naked, scared, Macbeth is so terrified of his own deeds and the following revenge that he puts himself in the corner (symbol of no way out of the situation). His nudity symbolizes weakness and vulnerability. His pose (fetus) stands for extreme insecurity. The objects seen on the table include dead bird and bloody knife (obviously, murder) and dirty pots and pans (dirty inclinations of the ones who staged the regicide). Macbeth is in the spot light, like during the Doomsday, and in my opinion it symbolizes that his secret is open, everyone knows. Scary.....

 

Links:

1. http://www.americanrepertorytheater.org/events/show/sleep-no-more
2. http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/oct/22/punchdrunk-macbeth-massachusetts
3. http://www.punchdrunk.org.uk/about.htm

Ghostface June: Entry 2.2: Wanderer / Magician

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Jennifer: Blog Entry 2.2: Wanderer

Jennifer: Blog Entry 2.2: Wanderer: "http://www.annettesmusic.com/kellberrygallery/main.php/d/4034-2/chobits-wallpaper-26_1_.jpg About This Picture Chobits is a Japanese anima..."

I wonder as i wander: refugypsy vagabond

“...with a vagrant strain in the blood, a natural inquisitiveness about the world beyond their doors.” Arthur Compton-Rickett

I need to move, I need new, fresh, unseen, unheard of, unlearned. I love to explore. I am nomadic. Fearless traveler. I cant even finish my post - I'm already gone, took off for the relentless trip, in search of my own personal temple.

I grew up between Estonia and Belarus, constantly crossing over Latvia and Lithuania as I was coming from one grandparents' house to another. My father is an interpreter, he was one of the few privileged people who could travel out of Soviet Union, and I think I take after him in my relentless motion. The break of Soviet Union when I was 6 put about 5 countries on my travel map, and the list has grown up to 17 countries since. I turned 19 during my first vacation in the USA, and I have visited around 25 states throughout the three consecutive summers I've spent here. Last vacation, 5 years ago, I stopped in NYC on my way back to Belarus and ...never left. Do I consider New York my home? More like headquarters to based out from. Perfect location and connection with the rest of the world, an explosive eclectic mixture of characters and cultures make this "human botanical garden" great place for me to be.. for a while. Moreover, the political and socio-economic tendencies in Belarus - my home at the time - were not much too my liking, and I asked for political asylum in this immigrants' paradise (documented refugee hehe). My gypsy part is underdocumented and is more of intuitive guess and gossip. But please do not mistake a nomadic refugee for a bum, as I hope I'm not. Happily residing in my lovely apartment in Greenwich Village, I make a quiet glamorous vagabond, and I must admit, I love comfort, and I hope comfort loves me back:)

My next expansion is down to the South - and I have started studying Spanish for that matter. First time I have set my foot down in the Spanish speaking world was my trip to the gorgeous but poor Dominican Republic. I haven't been to Argentina yet, but somehow I'm so sure I'll love it in Buenos Aires! I am also very curious about Japan, and I think that Japanese will be my next and biggest challenge. I speak or at least have studied 5 languages (Russian, Belarussian, English, German and Spanish) and every next one is easier than the previous, but Japanese must be a special cookie:) With my major in international business, Chinese is more profitable for me, as knowing Chinese I'd pretty much cover the majority of the world. But after a few summer visits to Canal st I doubt China is the right environment for me.. Needless to mention, I'm allergic to communism:D

I love to travel and I love education. Next time I have a chance to speak to Santa, I will ask him to make me Mary Poppins (or, better, Maria Popinska haha - based on my ethnic heritage) - a traveling teacher, who comes and goes as she pleases. With my current academic success of straight A's through 3 semesters, it looks like I might incorporate Noam Chomski's character in my ambition - a highly respected intellectual who's opinion on the world's issues is so listened to and appreciated. My biggest ambition would be to learn a newly developed course for a semester, just adopted by one of the Ivy League schools, and for the next semester go teach it in another prestige university. Learn and teach, relentlessly, always on the move.

According to Wikipedia, I am a Peripatetic nomad - who offer the skills of a craft or trade to those they travel among (most common in industrialized nations). My further wikiresearch made me realize something I could not get my entire life! Apparently, I am a representative of the Finnish kale (The Finnish Kale are a group of the Romani people that lives primarily in Finland and Sweden. In Finland they are often referred to as Mustalaiset (pl.) which means etymologically "Blacks", due to their darker complexions and hair in comparison to most other Scandinavians). No wonder in Estonia (which is across the sea from Finland) they noticed instantly that I look somewhat different! (I thought I should attribute it to my Belarussian half). But the Belarussian people did not apprehend me as part of community either, pointing out my Estonian accent and southern tan:) Nowadays, here, in the US, they call me Russian, but I could care less. I'm universal, I'm cosmopolitan, I am the force that makes the Earth go round:)

Works Sited:
1. image: http://www.hscross.com/wikis/images/3/36/Wanderer_from_the_Resplendent_City.jpg
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finnish_Kale
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagabond_(person)

Blog Entry 2.1: Goblin Market

Christina Rossetti, “the youngest member of a remarkable family of poets, artists, and critics” (G. Everett) is considered to be one of the most important British female poets of the XIX century. According to Glenn Everett, she was so religious and strict to herself, that she would reject the love of her life if he did not belong to the same religious creed, she would give up on playing chess as she felt that she enjoyed winning too much, and spent later years of her life working for the House of Charity, “an institution located in Highgate which was devoted to the rescue of prostitutes and unmarried mothers” (Jason B. Isaacs). No wonder that one of her most famous poems, “Goblin Market”, is devoted to the issue of original sin and opportunities for reprieve.

The action of Rossetti’s “Goblin Market” is set up in a small town. Two main protagonists, sisters Laura and Lizzie, are hurrying to get home before the twilight, when they hear the crowd of goblin merchant loudly advertising their luscious fruits. Lizzie is wise and obedient, she rejects to even look at the tempting fruits, covering her ears not to hear the goblins’ chanting. Laura is not as cautious, and after her sister hurries home, Laura approaches the merchants and accepts the indecent proposal to buy the fruit, paying with her golden lock instead of money. Never has her palate tasted anything as sweet, as juicy, as luscious:

129Sweeter than honey from the rock,

130Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,

131Clearer than water flow'd that juice;

132She never tasted such before.

Since the moment she tasted the dangerous fruit, Laura forgot herself (“And knew not was it night or day”) and would thwart to her sister’s upbraiding as she returned home. She said, that the fruits were so good, that she would buy more next day and bring some for Lizzy to try. But next morning brought devastating news. Two beautiful young girls, who grew up together and were so similar in their happy days, so alike, grew very different as Laura fell under the terrible spell:

210Lizzie with an open heart,

211Laura in an absent dream,

212One content, one sick in part;

213One warbling for the mere bright day's delight,

214One longing for the night.

Laura’s golden locks turned grey and dry, she wasn’t enjoying her lovely youth, “turned cold, like stone”, “her tree of life droop’d from the root”. All she could think about was to try the fruit again, but she could not listen to the goblin men chanting as hard as she tried…

299Tender Lizzie could not bear

300To watch her sister's cankerous care

301Yet not to share.

Lizzie pluck up her courage and went to find goblin men to buy some fruit and relieve her poor sibling. As she would not accept the invite to share the meal with the goblins, they attacked her and tried to force her to eat their fruit in their presence, but

430Lizzie utter'd not a word;

431Would not open lip from lip

432Lest they should cram a mouthful in.

When the goblins gave up and vanished, Lizzie came home all soaked in the fruity juices. She let Laura lick the juices off her body (468Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices 469Squeez'd from goblin fruits for you) and therefore was rescued, turned back to life: her pain and anguish passed, and next morning “Laura awoke as from a dream, Laugh’d in the innocent old way” with “her breath sweet as may”. Many years passed by, the sisters grew up and got married, got their own kids, but would never forget the perceptive story from their young years..

The poem is highly symbolic, and without doubt is an interpretation of the original sin story from the bible. The various fruits mentioned throughout the poem (e.g. lines 5-30) symbolize the camouflaged danger (“554Their fruits like honey to the throat 555But poison in the blood”), and their diversity corresponds with the multitude of temptations throughout peoples’ lives. The golden lock that Laura used to pay for her enjoyment symbolizes the transfer of power, her life energy, to the goblin men (her hair turned thin and grey). The mouth, eating and later licking off the juices is a highly sexual reference, and can also be perceived as the process of becoming something else: (“What you are eating can symbolize qualities or skills that you are trying to digest and make a part of yourself” - Deanna Joseph, BellaOnline's Dreams Editor). Gray color of Laura’s hair symbolizes her spiritual death. Lizzie’s closed mouth during interaction with the goblin men symbolizes resistance to the evil forces, to committing a sin. The fact that Laura got so sick once she tried the fruit juices again symbolizes that we have to pay for enjoyment by further suffering, and her further convalescence symbolizes hope for salvation and revival, but only through love and repentance.

Rossetti uses a few archetypes in her poem. Archetypes are mostly used to portray characters who are universally recognizable. Thus the poet does not need to describe the character and intentions of the goblins for us to understand who we are dealing with - once we hear "goblin" we imagine a wicked character, a perverted human with animal features, we know we'd better be careful around them (71-76). The archetype of the virgin maidens symbolize virginity, purity, innocence, naivety (32-40). Lara's behaviour lets her shadow out - her dark, disobedient self - as she contradicts what she knows and does what her desires make her do: eat the forbidden fruit (126-127).

I consider the poem to be an excellent story for the kids, that the adults could inherit from as well. An interesting and unusual take on the story of the original sin, Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" offers a happy ending, which gives us hope to get back to the lost paradise and promotes sibling love that can break any spell.

Works Sited:

bellaonline.com/articles/art10574.asp - Deanna Joseph, BellaOnline's Dreams Editor
2. http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art30246.asp - Deanna Joseph, BellaOnline's Dreams Editor
3.http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/rossettibio.html - Glenn Everett, Associate Professor of English
4.http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/crossetti/rossettibio1.html - Jason B. Isaacs