Analysis of Literature and Photography

Act 1 Scene 5 – Macbeth By William Shakespeare 

Lady Macbeth - “The raven himself is hoarse
    That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
    Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
    That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here,
    And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
    Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood;
    Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
    That no compunctious visitings of nature
    Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between
    The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
    And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers,
    Wherever in your sightless substances
    You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
    And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
    That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
    Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
    To cry 'Hold, hold!'”

An interpretation of Lady Macbeths Soliloquy is that it could symbolise her transformation from being a loving wife and honourable women to a sinister and dark lady in black. Through this soliloquy she is giving or sacrificing herself to dark nature. She wants everything good in her to be sucked out and replaced with bitterness and evil. The word “hold” at the end of the soliloquy can be portrayed as a command to God. She doesn’t want him to stop her from doing wrong. 

This is a photograph taken by photographer Annee Olofssn which I have not researched or even found the name of as I wanted to analyse it myself and portray the meaning or narrative to the image. 

 

A dark background adds to the intensity of an image. The black background contrasts with the light colours of the girls hair and clothes. I feel a sense of irony from the colour palet. The blonde hair and pastel top add a sense of inncoence to the figure and to the photo. However there is  a sense of invasion from the hands latched onto her arms. There is no knowing who the hand belong to, and the fact they are hidden beneath her clothes also hides the identitiy of the hands. They almost seem ghost like due to the pastel top, which could link with Lady Macbeths Soliloquy. The hands seem to be wanting to pull the women, who seems inncocent and naïve, into the dark. This links to Lady Macbeths need to be released of her innocence and kindness and unceiled into a darker nature.