I chose to do three of Shakespeare's better known soliloquies - one each from Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello. I chose the Shakespearean soliloquies because they often contain rhetorical arguments and contradictions, so I felt they would plot well for a truth tree. (Nobody beats Shakespeare when it comes to talking in circles and dithering rhetorically.) I also enjoyed the consistency of using three pieces from the same author and have found these soliloquies to have significant dramatic impact.
The Hamlet soliloquy was, of course, "To be or not to be"...it seemed an obvious choice. The Macbeth soliloquy belonged is Lady Macbeth's famous monologue. From Othello, however, I departed from the unbroken soliloquies and chose to utilize Othello's soliloquy and then final conversation with Desdemona before he murders her -- I thought the dialogue element with his accusations and her protestations would be visually interesting.
After charting these three selections (which, of course, necessitated the intermediate step of my translation of them into plain speech before conversion), I selected film stills from famous adaptations of each work. I wanted to focus on a singular color element (in this case, the color red) to tie together the images and also to serve as a not so subtle visual reminder that these tales are also unified by violence.
I altered the images heavily in Photoshop, simplifying and reducing the complexity of line and detail so that the truth trees would stand out better. I also wanted them to be somewhat familiar and recognizable in some regard. Finally, the trees were superimposed overtop of these altered images and the final writings were completed.
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Othello
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Macbeth
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Hamlet
