A Guiding Hand to a Manipulated Mind While the characters of Shakespeare 's Macbeth seem to function based on their own feelings, behind their masks of, “feelings,” and, “ambition,” the character’s are governed by a larger principle, the power of suggestion with the medium of transmission being fate: the witches’ prophecy. The characters are subliminally influenced to such an extent that they believe that they are continuing based on their own desires while they are really being manipulated by a power that they can not comprehend. The principle of fate relies on the power of suggestion in order to influence a character 's actions by applying to their desires, alter its feelings to the point of changing those inclinations, and ultimately
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In trying to avoid fate by prematurely killing off his enemies/friends, Macbeth inadvertently creates the ideal conditions for the prophecy to occur. Even though he realizes this, stating that, “Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect, whole as the marble, founded as the rock, as broad and general as the casing air. But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears,” (III.iv, 23-27) he still remains powerless to stop his work, leading him to further his own destruction. In trying to change the world around him to match his ideal conditions, he is is own undoing, pushed to the breaking point by the temptation wrought by the prophecy he so longs to comple. By believing in the prophecy, Macbeth ends up in a position where he must face the, “only man that can defeat him,” causing him to fall prey to the prophecy where in, had he not heard the prophecy, he may have had a fighting chance but cannot, “o’erleap,” (Reference to I.iv, 56) and now must pay for his actions. Upon hearing Macduff 's proclamation that he is a c-section, he suddenly experiences the fear he had forgotten, “And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense, That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope.” (V.viii, 23-26) By trying to avoid the fatal clauses of his contract with fate, he only winded himself further until he reached a point at which, fate leads him to believe that he is going to die, no alternative routes, no escape, all sales are final. Characters can easily be wooed by promises of wealth and glory but in the end they are crushed by their flaws as easily as they were coaxed
In trying to avoid fate by prematurely killing off his enemies/friends, Macbeth inadvertently creates the ideal conditions for the prophecy to occur. Even though he realizes this, stating that, “Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect, whole as the marble, founded as the rock, as broad and general as the casing air. But now I am cabined, cribbed, confined, bound in to saucy doubts and fears,” (III.iv, 23-27) he still remains powerless to stop his work, leading him to further his own destruction. In trying to change the world around him to match his ideal conditions, he is is own undoing, pushed to the breaking point by the temptation wrought by the prophecy he so longs to comple. By believing in the prophecy, Macbeth ends up in a position where he must face the, “only man that can defeat him,” causing him to fall prey to the prophecy where in, had he not heard the prophecy, he may have had a fighting chance but cannot, “o’erleap,” (Reference to I.iv, 56) and now must pay for his actions. Upon hearing Macduff 's proclamation that he is a c-section, he suddenly experiences the fear he had forgotten, “And be these juggling fiends no more believed, That palter with us in a double sense, That keep the word of promise to our ear, And break it to our hope.” (V.viii, 23-26) By trying to avoid the fatal clauses of his contract with fate, he only winded himself further until he reached a point at which, fate leads him to believe that he is going to die, no alternative routes, no escape, all sales are final. Characters can easily be wooed by promises of wealth and glory but in the end they are crushed by their flaws as easily as they were coaxed