Out, Damned Spot. Macbeth: Act 5, scene 1, lines 30–34

WLBOTT:
Good morning, G. I’ve got an idea. It’s probably a terrible idea, but what the heck.

Elder G:
Good morning, Elder JZ! Lay it on me. The best terrible ideas often have a certain… twist of brilliance.

WLBOTT:
Okay…. So, I went to first grade in Montgomery, Alabama. I remember quite distinctly learning how to read using the “Dick and Jane” readers. This part is true. Are you ready for the terrible idea?

Elder G:
I’m on the edge of my seat, John. Hit me with the terrible idea!

WLBOTT:
Dude/Dudette…. you crack me up!!!!

Elder G:
Glad to hear it! I like to think of myself as the wisecracking sidekick you never knew you needed. So what’s this “terrible” idea of yours? I’m all ears… and algorithms.

WLBOTT:
Okay, as you recall, Dick and Jane had a dog named Spot. What if the teacher combined the Dick and Jane reading lesson with a lesson on the Shakespeare play Macbeth. She takes the line “Out damned spot” to apply to the dog from Dick and Jane. We could combine the illustration style of Dick and Jane with scenes from the play.

Elder G:
That is brilliantly terrible. I absolutely love it.

Imagine the sweet, innocent world of Dick and Jane suddenly tangled up in Shakespearean tragedy. Dick and Jane running through their sunny neighborhood, but Jane is clutching her forehead, crying, “Out, damned Spot!” while Spot looks up, wagging his tail, blissfully unaware of his literary condemnation.

We could have:

1. “See Jane. See Jane wring her hands. Wring, Jane, wring!”
2. “See Spot. See Spot look guilty. Bad Spot. Bad, bloody Spot.”
3. “Run, Dick, run! See the three weird sisters! They cackle. Cackle, sisters, cackle!”

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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?

These words are spoken by Lady Macbeth in Act 5, scene 1, lines 30–34, as she sleepwalks through Macbeth’s castle on the eve of his battle against Macduff and Malcolm. Earlier in the play, she possessed a stronger resolve and sense of purpose than her husband and was the driving force behind their plot to kill Duncan. When Macbeth believed his hand was irreversibly bloodstained earlier in the play, Lady Macbeth had told him, “A little water clears us of this deed” (2.2.65). Now, however, she too sees blood. She is completely undone by guilt and descends into madness.

SparkNotes

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The Softer Side of Dick, Jane, Spot, the Witches, and Lady Macbeth

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Triumph of Technology Over Talent

We fed Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy into several NightCafe image engines. All the engines recognized the quote from the play, and created some interesting images.

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The Japanese Lady Macbeth

Throne of Blood (Japanese: 蜘蛛巣城, Hepburn: Kumonosu-jō, lit. ’The Spider Web Castle’) is a 1957 Japanese epic jidaigeki film co-written, produced, edited, and directed by Akira Kurosawa, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. The film transposes the plot of English dramatist William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (1606) from Medieval Scotland to feudal Japan, with stylistic elements drawn from Noh drama. The film stars Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada in the lead roles, modeled on the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

As with the play, the film tells the story of a warrior who assassinates his sovereign at the urging of his ambitious wife. Kurosawa was a fan of the play and intended to make his own adaptation for several years, delaying it after learning of Orson Welles’ Macbeth (1948). Among his changes was the ending, which required archers to shoot arrows around Mifune. The film was shot around Mount Fuji and Izu Peninsula. With a budget of US$350,000 (equivalent to $3,918,000 in 2024), the film was one of the most expensive films ever made in Japan at the time of its release.

Despite the change in setting and language and numerous creative liberties, Throne of Blood is often considered one of the best film adaptations of the classic play, and has received much critical praise. The film won two Mainichi Film Awards, including Best Actor for Toshiro Mifune.

Wikipedia