Scotland Pa And Macbeth Review

Scotland Pa And Macbeth Review

Dan Castano   January 9, 2011
“Scotland, PA” Reflection   Brit Lit/Comp. Block: 5

The movie was based on the Macbeth tragedy, in the form of a dark comedy. Although the story line and characters matched up quite correctly with the tragedy, it seems to me that Scotland, PA mostly focused on the psychological aspect more than specific details in the true story. The most creative feature was the revisiting of Lady Macbeth's burn and how it haunts her throughout the duration of the movie.  
Lady Macbeth is seen as a rugged, ambitious, and power hungry character in both the movie and the tragedy. Her feminine emotions are taken over by masculinity and in Scotland, PA her vulgar display of foul language shows it along with her desire to become wealthy and murderous thoughts. It was all Pat's mastermind idea to rob the restaurant and murder Norm Duncan, but when the fryer splashes her hand Pat is traumatized. The movie may have flawed in some aspects but really triumphed in the way Lady Macbeth was paranoid about her burn on her hand. It was a life lasting guilty conscience for Pat in the movie and led her to somewhat insanity. Her daily visits to the pharmacy made the clerk suspicious of her which further fed the paranoia Pat was enduring. The movie was a great resemblance of the tragedy of Macbeth. The creative feature of the burn on Pat's hand throughout the entire movie was its symbolism and continuous effect it had on Pat and others. It symbolized her guilty conscience and reminded her psychologically about her murder. To me the burn had a character of its own since in a way it carried the memory of Norm and how gruesome the murder was. In the end, Pat could not stop the constant stress and paranoia of this unpleasant reminder on her hand and lead to her insanity and suicide much like Lady Macbeth did in the tragedy. In order for Pat to cleanse her conscience she committed suicide by cutting off the burnt hand and symbolized how her greed and wealth was not...