Author's Notes
Introduction - Fictional
In the play, Lady Macbeth was a slightly timid side character and then suddenly an eager accomplice to Macbeth's murders, to the point of challenging his manhood when he thought twice about killing the king. I believe that Macbeth was a noble man and had he not been tempted by his wife he would not have killed the king in the original story. The motive for why his wife tempted him is this new story, with a few changes to who killed who and making the witches play a bigger role.
Laura found a name generator for me to use for the witches, and I decided upon these:
- Ursula (leading witch, think Winifred from Hocus Pocus) because I loved The Little Mermaid
- Medea (the third but smarter of the two follower witches, like Mary from Hocus Pocus) because of how evil her character is in Greek Mythology
- Lilith (the second witch like Sarah, the dumb but pretty witch in Hocus Pocus) because I love the TV show Supernatural and they had a hardcore white demon they fought named Lilith.
An Original Quote
"Something wicked this way comes" is a line said by one of the witches in the original play. I think it perfectly encapsulates the rest of the tale and is a fair end to the introduction that will hopefully make readers want to keep reading.
It Begins - Story 1
I wanted to start this story with the letter because it is not only an important piece in the play, but as she reads the letter it shows Lady Macbeth's decent into darkness. It also closely parallels the first scene with Lady Macbeth in the play, where she is alone and finds out about the prophecy, turning malevolent with no explanation. In the play, the witches cause Macbeth to hallucinate a bloody dagger when he is deciding whether or not to kill the king. In my story, they make Lady Macbeth hallucinate she is wearing a crown right before they change her letter to warn her the clock is ticking. They also magically put a dagger in Lady Macbeth's pocket, which was supposed to sort of symbolize a fork in the road - she could let her husband be caught or she could kill the guards. While the witches are definitely persuading her to become evil, ultimately she is the one making her decisions and letting temptation disintegrate her morals.
An Original Quote
"The agents of evil often tell us part of the truth in order to lead us to our destruction " is a line Banquo says to Macbeth, warning him about trusting the witches. Here, I have used it for Macbeth to try and deter his wife from making the same mistakes he does in the play.
The Day Before -Story 2
This story starts with the witches in a way that was never done in the original story. The witches in the play always showed up at the perfect time or knew when someone was about to arrive. I think that they were watching the other characters, but it was never explicitly pointed out as it is in my story.
Banquo now has not just more of a role in my story but many more lines than he did in the play. He is killed in the play, but by assassins sent by Macbeth. I have changed the use of assassins and added Banquo to Lady Macbeth's death count.
Magic is used throughout the previous story, but now the witches only interfere to show Lady Macbeth who freed Malcolm. Lady Macbeth is completely off the rails by this point, needing very little push from the witches.
An Original Quote
“Oh, horror, horror, horror! This is beyond words and beyond belief!” is a line said by Macduff when he is announcing the king's death. Here I am using it by Banquo to do the same thing.
"The graceful and renowned king is dead. The wine of life has been poured out,” this first part of the line was said by Macbeth in the play and is said by him now for the same purpose. The rest of the line is contoured to my story.
The Planets Align - Story 3
I tried to tie everything together in the end - and just to clarify, I did not forget about the two guards Lady Macbeth killed and hid in a closet. However, this story unfolded in three days with so much chaos I let my characters more or less forget about them. With so many other important people being murdered, I didn't think anyone would realistically notice two guards missing. The end of Macbeth is obviously nothing like this, but some things I took and twisted were the way they died. In the play, Lady Macbeth kills herself in grief and Macbeth is killed by Malcolm.
An Original Quote
“Your grief should not be equal to his worth, because then your sorrow would never end” is the original line in the play said by a minor character I modified for my story. In the play, it is about Malcolm’s son who died in battle whereas I used the line for Macbeth mourning his best friend. “He is worth more mourning than that, and I will mourn for him” follows this line in my story, but in the play it’s when Malcolm responds to the death of his son. I liked these lines because of how they represent grief for family, which Macbeth experienced tenfold. Macbeth constantly argues with himself in the play, so I gave in to that classic dialogue in his final moment in my story.
“Cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life” is modified in my play, spoken by Satan but originally written in the Bible from God talking to Adam about listening to his wife and eating the apple. Although I am not religious, throughout this play I found myself noticing many parallels to my story and the story of Adam and Eve. Like Adam, Macbeth trusted his wife and betrayed the king (similarly to how Adam betrayed God). Like Eve, Lady Macbeth fell into a trap and damned humanity (similarly to how Eve was tricked by Satan).
I love Shakespeare and hope my "play" of Lady Macbeth was easy to follow. I also hope that others will become interested in reading the story that inspired me if they haven't already.