Have you ever wondered how Shakespeare’s Macbeth could relate to other art forms? Several people have compared Macbeth to other literary works, songs, raps, and paintings. Although not extremely clear at first, there IS a resemblance between the composition in Pablo Picasso’s 1953 painting Tete du’n Femme Lisant and characters’ actions and motives in Macbeth.
Tete du'n Femme Lisant- Pablo Picasso, 1953
In Macbeth, several characters emerge in sinister ways. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are two characters whose violent and aggressive states are evident. In Tete du’n Femme Lisant, the colors used are mostly dark, causing a dismal feel to meld the painting together. Some of the colors most included are deep purples, dark green, and indigo. As colors, purple is attributed to power and mystery, dark green is associated with greed, and indigo relates to strength. Characters in Macbeth shares these color traits in their motives and actions. Macbeth says, “That is a step on which/I must fall down or o'er leap/Stars, hide your fires!/Let not light see my black and deep desires.” (Act 1 Scene 4). Macbeth quickly becomes more evil as his character develops, but it is evident when he first considers the idea of becoming king. Macbeth begins unknowing and wholesome in the beginning of the play, but he grows wicked and foul with the help of his wife. Lady Macbeth urges him to kill Duncan to become king and instills in him a malicious seed. Throughout the first three acts, Lady Macbeth is unapologetically cynical, proving her overwhelming greed for power. “Things without all remedy should be without regard; what's done is done” she says (Act 3 Scene 2). She encourages Macbeth to embrace what they've done and to accept that they are murderers, which does take a whole lot of strength!
In Tete du’n Femme Lisant, Picasso splits the woman’s face in the middle. One side is yellow, and the other is a dark, purple-grey color. The separation between contrasting colors gives off a sense of being “two-faced.” Yellow is the color of optimism and youth, while grey and purple together are attributed as colors of gloom, evil, and power. The split between a youthful, innocent color and a dark, murky color is similar to the personalities of characters in Macbeth. Throughout the play, many characters are duplicitous. Macbeth in particular displays his two sides early on in Act 3 — one being deceitful and the other faking innocence and nobility. He lies:
There the murderers,
Steeped in the colors of their trade, their daggers
Unmannerly breeched with gore. Who could refrain
That had a heart to love, in that heart
Courage to make’s love own?
Macbeth claims that he killed the guards because he could not stand to see them alive after they killed King Duncan (Act 2 Scene 3). Macbeth actually killed the guards, but he lies to Donalbain, Macduff, and Lennox to seem like a righteous, respectable man who was looking for justice. Lady Macbeth also holds a memorable acting performance in this part of the play. She is “shocked” when she finds out her husband killed the guards, and that Duncan was killed in her castle.
(Lady Macbeth probably used the YouTube above to practice fake fainting)
It is clear that Lady Macbeth is not the suspected murderer following her performance because of the concern expressed by Macduff when he said, “Look to the lady” (Act 3 Scene 2). Lady Macbeth in Acts 1-3 carries with her two personas — one a friendly host and the other a bad-ass serial killer. She persuades Macbeth to commit murder for the reward of power when she says, “Look like th’ innocent flower/But be the serpent under’t” (Act 1 Scene 5). The “innocent flower” links to the yellow half of the woman’s face in Tete du’n Femme Lisant, and the “serpent” symbolizes the dark half.
The split in Tete du’n Femme Lisant can also resemble internal struggle within characters in Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth first tells Macbeth about her idea to kill King Duncan, Macbeth hesitates. The two main reasons for this are: “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,/Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,/Who should against his murderer shut the door,/Not bear the knife myself” (Act 1 Scene 7). Macbeth is torn because of his blood relation to King Duncan and because as a host, he should not be the one murdering, but rather the one protecting. Macbeth also knows that Duncan has been such a humble leader and so free of corruption, influencing Macbeth not to commit the heinous act. On the other hand, Lady Macbeth’s plan and the Three Witches’ prophecies intrigued the side of Macbeth that vies for the crown. Macbeth even says himself that his “vaulting ambition” motivated him (Act 1 Scene 7). Macbeth also carries out the murder because of pressure from his wife:
What beast was ’t, then,
That made you break this enterprise to me?
When you durst do it, then you were a man;
And to be more than what you were, you would
Be so much more the man.
Lady Macbeth taunts Macbeth, saying that he won’t be a man if he does not go through with the plan (Act 1 Scene 7). Because Macbeth does eventually kill Duncan, it is clear that he cares what Lady Macbeth thinks of him and his bravery. Macbeth’s internal conflict consists of the side that wants to do the right thing and the side fueled by his wife’s wishes. Both sides internally cause Macbeth strife and confusion. Although not an external split like the woman’s face in the painting Tete du’n Femme Lisant, Macbeth does endure an internal divide.
In Macbeth, the sinister ways of several characters, deceitfulness, and internal divides are apparent. Picasso’s composition and organization of Tete du’n Femme Lisant relate to these factors through his color choice and divided artistic style. Although one piece is a painting from a Spanish painter in the 1950s and the other is a tragedy written by an English playwright in the early 17th century, the artistic works do share similar characteristics. The relation between the two displays how different areas of art can have deeper resemblance than what one might think at first.
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