Macbeth REVISED Shakespeare's tragedy of Macbeth is, in some ways, the story of a disaster that everyone can see coming. After all, it opens with characters -- the Three Witches -- who can see the future. When Macbeth encounters them, the witches offer what Shakespeare terms "strange intelligence" or "prophetic greeting" -- predicting that he will attain the titles of Thane of Cawdor, Thane of Glamis, and King of Scotland (I.iii). The question the play poses, then, is what Macbeth can or cannot do to manipulate the existing circumstances to fulfill his own ambition and the witches' prophecy. The witches predict Macbeth will be the king -- they do not predict that he will murder Duncan to make it happen. Shakespeare does not use the term "manipulate" for Macbeth's way of becoming king, but instead couches it in terms of daring -- as Macbeth will tell his wife, when he begins his campaign to manipulate existing circumstances and attain the titles the witches have predicted for him, "I dare do all that may become a man / Who dares do more is none." (I.vii). But every stage of Macbeth's daring takes him one step closer to his downfall at the close of the play. I hope to demonstrate that Shakespeare uses the character of Macbeth to illustrate the idea that manipulation can lead to disaster.

Manipulation is defined as action taken to achieve a goal or ambition. Macbeth is certainly aware of his own ambition, but his own wife doubts his capacity for manipulative behavior. In Act I Scene...

For Lady Macbeth the question is whether her husband would be willing to kill to get what the witches predicted for him -- to a certain extent, she is willing to manipulate her husband to make sure he will take action. She criticizes his ambition for lack of "illness" which otherwise would seem a bad thing to have. And she criticizes his wish to attain things "holily" and his refusal to "play false." To a certain degree Shakespeare is playing up to the prejudices of his audience (and the monarchy) which would understand the murder of Duncan as a crime that overturns the order of nature itself. In other words, the manipulation that Lady Macbeth believes is necessary is also phrased by Shakespeare in terms that do not suggest the outcome will be good.
When Macbeth contemplates the act of murder in soliloquy in Act I Scene VII, he himself seems aware that this criminal manipulation of the situation will end up being defined by its unintended consequences. He is aware that to decide to manipulate circumstances by killing Duncan is necessarily going to entail a chain of action: to "teach bloody instructions" means that these instructions "being taught, return / to plague the inventor." "Even-handed justice" will ensure that…