Shakespeare "MacBeth"

The Hallucinations in MB are symbols of the culpability of MB for killing the king and others in his way to get to be king. Similarly, the reoccurring flashbacks and memories are there to show Anton that he is guilty at least in his own mind. He feels the guilt for the murder of his son and cannot shake the feeling as he lays in bed. Perhaps he contemplates the fact that he is on a quest to stop another murderer and that he cannot fail like he did in stopping himself. Perhaps he feels that he is trying to right the wrongs he he caused in his life. *See C&P for similar hallucinations over the guilt of killing the pawn broker.

The action in MB is bookended by battles - one that sees the ascendency of MB to greater powers on his way to the throne, the other that sees him killed for having become a murderous tyrant. One battle sets in motion chaos, the other restores order. The opposite is true, but the battles bookend the same way in NW. The first battle defines the order and the last lets loose the chaos. The truce that is defined in the first battle is upended and perhaps abandoned in the last when the boy chooses the Dark Others over the light. The equality is broken, but the light others also gain a powerful ally in Sveta - one that was foretold to bring chaos, but chaos abated is gained as a friend.

Prophesy is a major component in NW. The virgin is prophesied to bring chaos and symbolize the coming of the great one that will end the truce. The great one is prophesied to bring the light and dark a decisive ally for one. Anton is also prophesised to have a son - a son, that may have been born, not from natural childbirth as the abortion was attempted - perhaps he had been born by c-section - speculation. It is interesting the connection to MacDuff in the birth prophesy. What of the prophesies that could have been self-fulfilling? Was the boy always destined to be great and Anton made him dark? Was it more likely that he would have been dark anyway? What about the knowledge for Anton that he is believed to be a killer? Will he act as a killer since he knows he is believed to be so or can he change his fate? **See Dark City** Are we more than what we are fated to be? Are we only the pawns of the fates and forced to live them out?

Blood as a symbol - Blood plays a role in the film as it is used in many places and is the source of the vampire's thirst for Yegor. In the beginning of the film the witch uses a drop of Anton's blood in the concoction that is supposed to have the wife of Anton come back to him. It does not work and the wife does not come back to him - is it because he almost aborts the child or is it because he becomes an Other? In the scene with the witch the scene switches back and forth from Anton to the wife and she states that she cannot stay - as if she is going to leave the man she is having the affair with. She does not, but for the viewer it is as if she is going to leave. The NW come and stop the abortion and they are intent on stopping the spell - which means that it must be about to work - yet they arrest her on conducting witchcraft under false pretenses. What are the false pretenses? Will the spells work or not? Is she really capable as a witch of bringing the wife back? Will the child be killed? or is it that the false pretense is based on the fact that the witch tells Anton that the child is not his. this must be it. the rest of the spells nearly come true, yet do not. None of the predictions that the witch uses and is paid for come true. But why? Is is because she is not capable or is it because Anton does not want any of them to come true for him after he has become an Other and has been in the Gloom? Or is it a result of him killing his son - or so he thinks? This is different than with the weird sisters in MacBeth. The predictions that they tell all come true, but there is some speculation as to the source of the prediction's power - is it in the psyche or is it in the witch's ability to predict the future?

The blood is also used for Anton to become closer to being a vampire. He is able to see and hear the blood veins and the calling of the other vampires to Yegor as he becomes closer to the vampire in form. The vampire family n the film only drink for the most part pigs blood and in the film do no such drinking. They never engage in the drinking of blood. Only anton does the drinking - is blood drinking analagous to the drinking of alcohol, which he is stated to have a problem with. It is known that he has a drinking problem. He is interestingly enough rarely shown to be drinking and is only seldom seen to be in a stupor, but the source of this is hard to discern also. Is it when he is in the gloom or is it after he is completely exhausted and can barely stand at the end of a long couple of days - how many days is the film? If we take out the beginning with the fighting on the bridge and the part when Anton meets the witch in the beginning, the film is all in a day? Maybe two days? It is not three or four as far as I can tell.

Blood is used as spell, a form altering disguise, as a source of manipulation, as a source of desire,  food, subsistence. Blood is present when Anton is nearly killed by the vampire in the hair dresser's shop. It is all over Gessar's desk and hands when he reaches in to heal Anton. This is Gessar's blood on his hands as well as the head of Night Watch - after all he sent Anton out into the field to do work when he was previously a programmer and is said to be not very well trained. Blood is also present in the battle field as a substance that is spilled in terrible amounts and cannot support life when not in the body.