Manipulation In Shakespeare's Macbeth And The Witches

A play that derives from shakespearean times, Macbeth is a power struggle to see who is in control of the outcome. In Macbeth, a gifted warrior turns king, but his ambition eventually gets the best of him, and eventually leads to his downfall. While the story itself is enticing, the main problem in the play is as follows: who is really pulling the strings in Macbeth? Multiple characters shape the events that take place in Macbeth, however Macbeth himself remains the most responsible for being in control, with Lady Macbeth and The We’ird sisters not having as much effect, but still contributing to the major events that occurred during Macbeth. Manipulation plays a big part in Macbeth, acting as a major theme in the story. Macbeth is faced with …show more content…
Late in the play, Macbeth, while his castle is under attack, says “Blow, wind! come, wrack! At least we'll die with harness [i.e. armor] on our back” (Document E). As Document E shows, Macbeth, backed up against his castle and horribly outnumbered, decides to stay and fight as oppose to try and flee or seek other help. There just seems to be numerous better decisions to make that are all better off than this one. Macbeth also has another mental blunder when he forgets to leave the daggers at the scene of the Duncan murder. “Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there” (Document C) displays Macbeth’s inability to make rational decisions in the clutch. As he begins to self-destruct with ambition, it seems as if he becomes more unintelligent and more unable to make the right decision, and in this instance, it almost caused him to blow his cover up for the Duncan murder. Derek Cohen also helps show Macbeth’s mental decline by explaining that “Part of his tragic agony is self-disgust at his betrayal of the warrior code to which he had been grafted…Macbeth can only plummet to new depths of betrayal and disgrace” (Cohen). Cohen shows Macbeth’s downward spiral. He describes