MACBETH CREATIVE BENCHMARK
The following was a project for a 9th grade English class, using creativity and imagination to extend a quote analysis into an engaging piece that shows that character journey of Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is an inhumane controlling power-hungry woman that wants to leave her gender, but after King Duncan is murdered, it turns her into a frail and broken self-loathing human being. This is shown through the project I decided to do, using clay and sterling silver to create one of a kind pendants that represented the character change of Lady Macbeth throughout the entire play.
PENDANT DESCRIPTION
The first pendant is pink with leaves curling around. Lady Macbeth started out as a normal woman that wasn’t necessarily bad, and wasn’t necessarily good. Pink is considered the color of life, good health, and a new start. The leaves represent the life that started out so innocently. The second pendant is green with purple spirals coiling around the sphere. She began to become secretly desirous and envious of those with higher power. Green is considered a color that signifies jealousy. The leaves turn into spikes that swirl around, showing that her intentions aren’t exactly clear yet. The third pendant is orange with silver stems blossoming from the bottom. She then begins to demand attention while she thinks of a plan to murder the king. Orange is considered a color that means “flamboyant” or “exuberant.” The outward and touching spikes are together in a stem at the base of the colored sphere, almost as if they are growing upwards and reaching out to get away and branch out. The fourth pendant is a lilac purple with a sky blue vine entwining the sphere. Lady Macbeth begins to design the perfect plan involving homicide. Light purple is said to represent cruelty and arrogance. The vines seem to be trying to connect as she devises the perfect scheme. (“How now, my lord! Why do you keep alone/Of sorriest fancies your companions making/Using those thoughts which should indeed have died/With them they think on? Things without all remedy/Should be without regard. What’s done is done.”) (Act 3, Scene 2, Line 15, Page 45). The fifth pendant is a cherry red with a black snake twirling around. She feels dangerous and wants nothing more than to be a man so she could do the deed herself. Red is said to be the colors of danger and aggression. The black “snake” (“...scorched the snake, not killed it.” (Act 3, Scene 2, Line 15, Page 45). ) twirling around the sphere represents the fact that she is now in the perfect position to convince her husband to murder an innocent man for power. (“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!”) (Act 1, Scene 5, Lines 30-37, Page 17). The sixth pendant is a black sphere with a ribcage wrapped onto it. She is now turning into an evil woman with a weapon - a killer. Black is supposed to mean “wicked.” The ribcage is holding the sphere, and represents the fact that she feels like she is blinded with power and can’t escape. (“Come, thick night/And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell/That my keen knife see”) (Act 1, Scene 5, Line 49, Page 17). The seventh pendant is a deep purple wrapped with barbed wire. Lady Macbeth now becomes frustrated with herself because she almost regrets having the deed done, even if it’s not said. Dark purple is considered the colors of sad feelings and annoyance. The silver spikes resembling barbed wire represents the point that she can’t do anything to go back and take back what has already happened. (“Naught’s had, all’s spent/Where our desire is got without content/‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy/Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.”) (Act 3, Scene 2, Line 5, Page 45). The eighth pendant is a silver ball with a broken rope. She begins to worry, and realizes that she was wrong in what she did. Gray is said to be the color of tormenting or panic. The rope is recoiling away from itself because she is beginning to have mental breakdowns, because she feels like her hands are covered in blood and she can’t rinse it off no matter what she does. (“Out, damned spot! Out, I say!—One, two. Why, then, ’tis time to do ’t. Hell is murky!—Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?—Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him.”) (Act 5, Scene 1, Line 35, Page 84). The ninth pendant is a white sphere with black wings growing out of it. Lady Macbeth takes her own life to get rid of the suffering and self-tormenting. The white sphere means peace, because she is done with worrying and being in constant pain.
To create the pendants, I had to do many things before actually producing the finished product. I needed to plan out nine emotions that I could portray. I made a list of parts in the play where Lady Macbeth had a prominent emotion. Later, I researched the relationship between colors and emotions and what colors represented which emotion. The colored sphere in each pendant represents a different emotion. After that, I had to create the pendants, so I used clay for that. I made sterling silver hooks, and then after the pendants were dry, I reinforced them with epoxy and added gloss glaze.
I think one huge difficulty in this project was that it was extremely time-consuming. The pendants alone took me around ten hours in total to complete, and that’s not including the display. I did spend a lot of time on them. I think that next time, I could easily start earlier if I didn’t want to do so much work at one time.
I am most proud of the fact that no one else had my kind of project. I also am proud of sticking with it even if it did take a long time. I hope that everyone else enjoyed my project as much as I did.
If I were given the chance to do this project over, I would 100% go with the idea of the pendants. My original ideas weren’t as great. I originally wanted to do a pop-up book, but I thought that with all the people that were touching it, it wouldn’t last very long. It would also take most likely more time than the pendants did.
My colleagues also did creative projects to represent the character development of Macbeth or Lady Macbeth. I think that they were very well done. A lot of them made me see the character development in a whole other light that I hadn’t seen before. Also, some of them pointed things out that I had never noticed. It made me realize how creative we all are, and how differently our mind works from the rest of us.
Through this project, I realized that I can most definitely complete something even if it seems impossible, if I put my mind to it. I also learned a bunch of different creative ways to represent a storyline that I could use to my advantage in the future.
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