Toil & Trouble is a comic written by Mairghread Scott and illustrated by Kelly and Nichole Matthews. It tells the story of Shakespeare's Macbeth from the point of view of the iconic three witches. Many place Macbeth on a high literary pedestal (like me...English major here), or maybe it just haunts you in your high school nightmares. Regardless, most adults in the western world are familiar with Macbeth, and so there are challenges in taking such a famous text and asking readers to interact with it in new ways. Will it still make sense and have the same emotional impact? This will be explored using theories of transtextuality defined by French literary theorist Gérard Genette.
Hypertextuality is important in Toil & Trouble because without Macbeth, this comic would not exist. The original plot line is not being changed; the reader is instead given a new layer of perspective, a look at what the witches are up to during the events of Macbeth. Though the characters come from Shakespeare, Scott has taken liberties. For instance, the witches now have names. This gives us an insight and a connection to these characters. Smertae is the witch that narrates the story, and we see her narration boxes in yellow, separate from the story's dialogue balloons.
Most will recognize these lines from the opening scene of Macbeth, and this is how Scott ties us into the story. While I personally have the context to recognize this dialogue, some people may fail to make such connections. Would the comic still have the same effect on someone who has never read or seen Macbeth? Surely it would still make sense, but I would argue that knowing the original story significantly adds to the enjoyment of this comic.
I find this particular panel fascinating. The hypertextuality between Macbeth and Toil & Trouble is illuminated in the drawing style. The action of the panel, the 'first layer', is the fight between Macbeth and Macdonwald, which is alluded to in the play. But on the 'second layer' we see three distinct circles framed within the panel. These give us another layer of meaning because they indicate instances where the witches are intervening in the battle. The use of a single colour, blue or green, differentiates these areas from the rest of the panel. When they are juxtaposed with the comic's colourful world, we can see the witches' influence.
It is made clear to the reader that the witches are responsible for the outcome of the story. We find out that the third witch Smertae breaks the sisters' plan and helps Macbeth defeat Macdonwald to set the story as we know it in motion. I know the plot of Macbeth, and I'm well aware of the not-so-happy ending... yet I can't wait to read what happens next.
Lauren Farquhar
No comments:
Post a Comment