Monday, May 3, 2010

Double, Double Toil and Trouble

Believe it or not, I had no idea the rhyme “double, double toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble” (Act 4, scene 1) came from this play! I always just assumed that it was something someone came up with around Halloween to creep everyone out! However, now knowing that Shakespeare was the originator of this rhyme, it is very fitting. This is my first time reading Macbeth, but I did see it performed once in middle school using only two actors and three students from the audience for the witches (honestly, that’s all I remember from that performance. I really don’t understand still how only two actors were used…). It is pretty amazing that Shakespeare’s depiction of witches stirring a cauldron and chanting this has survived through to our own time.

I can name several modern day films that use this phrase, all of them depicting witches. The first that comes to my mind, perhaps because it was the first one I remember seeing, was “Double Trouble,” starring the Olsen Twins (I could be wrong on the exact film title, it has been so long! Sorry!). There was a scene involving a woman dressed as a witch stirring a cauldron and saying these lines while the twins watched. Very creepy, especially for a kid.

The next, and probably best depiction of the typical, Halloween witch, comes from “Hocus Pocus.” Here there are three witches constantly trying to brew potions in the cauldron to suck the youth out of children for their own survival. While these witches use many of their own incantations, I generally picture Macbeth’s witches to look very similar.

A bit surprising, but in the third Harry Potter film, there is a scene toward the beginning, when they arrive at Hogwarts, with a bunch of the students singing a version of this (clipped attached). What is great about this is that every line in this song is from this scene in Macbeth! They even include the line “something wicked this way comes.” When I was reading this scene, in my head the entire time was the tune and rhythm of this song and it was kind of distracting due to the seriousness of the play at hand. Maybe the director’s idea behind using this song was to take away some of the scary effects it has on people? (I am unsure whether or not this song was created for this movie or existed beforehand). Regardless, Shakespeare is clearly using it as a means to frighten the reader/observer and maybe even to get the words stuck in their head.

I never really thought of Shakespeare as a horror writer before, but it may be possible to give him some of that credit in this play. I don’t believe that Europe has the same Halloween customs as we do in the United States (though they do have All Hallows eve, right?) but his influence on it is clear. I wonder if other people walk around on Halloween chanting those words not realizing their origin? This shows Shakespeare’s influence on our society even today. He seems to always crop up in the strangest places, which is great because, as a future educator, I can show my classes how he relates to and make connections with the modern times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lXrQI-jsEQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BbCrv28rJ4&feature=related

2 comments:

Cyrus Mulready said...

This connects nicely to Eric G's post below about the connection between Shakespeare and other later genres. I think there is a way in which *Macbeth* figures in formulations of the horror genre--especially in his creation of eerie atmosphere and the idea of a fate one cannot escape.

Emily Turck said...

I didn't know that the saying came from this play either! I guess you really o learn something new everyday. I also really enjoyed how you compared Shakespeare to a horror writer. Imagine what he would do with today's technology and his stories. I guess we will never know.