Denzel’s Macbeth and the Dialectic of Neoliberalism

The new film version of Macbeth, starring Denzel Washington as the tragic Scottish king, and directed by Joel Coen, contains both an expression and critique of neoliberalism

Denzel Washington plays Macbeth in a new adaptation of the tragedy by Shakespeare, now in theaters. Since it’s Denzel, an actor who transcends race, it isn’t annoyingly like, “Wow look at us we have a black Macbeth.” It’s just Denzel playing Macbeth, and he is unsurprisingly great. That alone is enough to draw interest, at least mine, but this new Macbeth is interesting for other reasons too. It is directed by Joel Coen, of the Coen Brothers, but his brother Ethan was not involved with the project, I believe the first time that’s happened—perhaps because the film was made for AppleTV+, which Ethan didn’t want to work with. It is something of a betrayal of traditional cinema to work with a streaming service for a technology company, and the Coens are one of the last bastions of traditional, pure cinema around.

The film, despite its stars in front of and behind the camera, has kind of a small feeling to it. It’s in black and white, which gives a movie a small, intimate feeling. It’s filmed mostly in a cramped, winding castle—interiors, halls. It’s all about secrets and schemes, whispered plots that eventually explode—and then the backlash is dealt with, but the backlash of the schemes and plots, Lady Macbeth (played by director Joel Coen’s wife Frances McDormand) convincing her husband to kill King Duncan and take his place, have their repercussions in the minds of the schemers. First Macbeth is driven insane by what he did, then his wife. It’s all about interiority—the minds of the Macbeths become labyrinths that they are trapped in, reflecting the cramped, claustrophobic castle corridors and hallways.

After killing the King and getting the throne, Macbeth doesn’t get to enjoy it. He achieves his goal, but his success is so small and cramped and short-lived. The walls are closing in as soon as he gets the throne for himself—both in his mind, with his increasing insanity brought on by guilt, and with his increasing enemies, who quickly begin to see him for the villain that he is. The throne is actually a coffin.

But what was Macbeth all along? Was his true self the villain who killed King Duncan to take his place? Or was the real Macbeth a good man who was corrupted by his evil bitch wife? The play is about Macbeth’s journey, but not a hero’s journey—a villain’s journey. Becoming who he truly is—but that is not always a good thing. In fact, it’s never a good thing. The truth of Macbeth’s being, his inner nature, is brought out by his wife encouraging his evilness. She is the one who urges him to do the deed, to kill the King and take his place. When he has doubts, she makes sure he sticks to it: “screw your courage to the sticking place!” she tells him.

Macbeth was too weak to become his true evil self. Lady Macbeth is the hero of the play, the courageous heart of it, because she helps Macbeth become who he is—an evil villain. Macbeth himself was too weak to become his true self—as most men are. For that, a woman is needed. So his true self is to be evil, but once he attains this, he is already lost. Self-actualization is really the negation of the self—you lose yourself by becoming it. As soon as Macbeth becomes who he is, he is trapped—in the insanity of his mind, and in the coffin of the throne.

This is a central tenet of neoliberalism—that we need to get in touch with our true self, self-actualize, become empowered and so on, and that will lift us up into a higher, more authentic state of being. And it is often presented as a feminist thing, #Girlboss and LeanIn and so on, which is certainly the case with Macbeth—his wife is the one who encourages him to become his best (that is to say, evilest), self. But, as Macbeth’s case shows, the true self is a lie—it seems expansive and deep, but it’s really claustrophobic, and a trap. Just as the mania for self-actualization and empowerment during the hyperneoliberal 2010s was a trap, presenting itself as this new horizon with open possibilities, but was in reality just a way for capitalism to accelerate its totalitarianism over all of society, and close off possibilities to imagine any alternative.

The way the film is shot, you are really brought inside the claustrophobia of Macbeth. You can feel the walls closing in. The black and white highlights shadows, transience, things blurring into one another. The scene where Lady Macbeth decides that she will help her husband become evil, early on in the film, expresses this well. She is laying in bed, almost writhing around, summoning evil into herself: “And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood, Stop up the access and passage to remorse…” But she isn’t summoning this evil for herself—rather, she is doing it for her husband, so that she will be strong enough in her evil to direct him to kill the King and take his place. Her evil fades into his—the evil is generated from some other place, outside of Macbeth—which is why it traps him so well.

Her vision for her husband is grand—for him to embrace evil, to become who he is, the King of Scotland! But this grand vision traps Macbeth—it doesn’t free him, it limits him. Her help is a prison—ambition is a trap. Girlboss feminism, a core ideology of neoliberalism, just glorifies capitalism . The ideas that others have for us, grand though they might be, can only trap us inside of what they imagine we are. Macbeth became who he was, he fulfilled his evil destiny, all at once, too quickly, because it was artificially enforced on him. Our true self must be discovered, the process of a self-generated inner search, not uncovered by some exterior source.

Becoming who he was too quickly, seizing the throne through artificial, evil means, was overwhelming, trapping Macbeth and driving him insane. In order to keep a hold of this new, artificial self, he had to resort to crueler and eviler means—such as slaying his rival Macduff’s wife and children. This kind of darkest evil was not really who Macbeth was, but he had to become this evil in order to defend his misbegotten new status.

And this is what kills Macbeth ultimately—turning Macduff into a permanent enemy, who will stop at nothing to kill him, to get vengeance for his murdered family. The final scene where Macbeth faces off against Macduff brings the theme of claustrophobia out very nicely. They are fighting on the top of the castle, in a narrow corridor, a battlement. There isn’t enough room for them to fight properly in such narrow confines. Macbeth has an expansive fighting style, relying on lateral movements—but in his duel with Macduff, he can’t move. He just has to face his enemy head on, and his enemy is younger, hungrier, and motivated by a just cause—killing the man responsible for slaughtering his family.

Macbeth became trapped, and he ultimately couldn’t escape the narrow confines he fell into. His pursuit of greatness became a trap that killed him. He created his own perfect enemy, his polar opposite—giving Macduff the motivation to become pure vengeance, to become who he was. And this is the tragedy of Macduff as well—that he only fulfilled his destiny, and became a great warrior of righteousness, from working against Macbeth’s evil.

Macbeth creates his dialectical opposite, which destroys him. Indeed, Macbeth is one of the most dialectical works of art ever made. There are themes of dialectics throughout the play; to take just two examples: “So fair and foul a day I have not seen”; “Nothing is but what is not.” And this film production, made by AppleTV+, a very neoliberal thing, a streaming service made by the biggest technology company in the world, itself dialectically negates some core themes of neoliberalism—that becoming who you are, doing self-actualization and empowerment, will somehow improve your life and the world. In fact, as the film shows, this destroys you, and destroys everything around you. But there is hope—it opens up possibilities for others to elevate themselves and become heroes, which is what happens with Macduff. As neoliberal ideology expands and achieves its peak expression, and becomes hegemonic, it also reveals its emptiness, and creates the seeds of its own destruction.