Macbeth: What Is Being Said About Influence and Manipulation

What are we as humans far more afraid of free choice or a forced decision? Manipulation and influence are presented in many ways through out the course of this book. This essay will be more of a comparative analysis between two novels The Tragedy Of Macbeth and Paradise Lost. Though influence may be a large section of our lives manipulation is what gets us to do things.

In both stories prophecies were told, but there were told in a malicious way. In the novel Macbeth the main character was told he would some day become king in an ill begotten fashion. It doesn’t seem possible to gain a crown in a bad way. There words are very deceitful. Then there prophecies turn to Macbeth’s friend Banquo, witches say “lesser than Macbeth, and greater,”(William Shakespeare act I scene III) and “not so happy, yet much happier”(W.S. act I scene III); then they tell him that he will never be king but that his children will sit upon the throne. After they say these things they simply disappear. This doesn’t show much free choice. When true meanings are hidden in lies and you become confused and no longer do you understand simple truths you have been manipulated.

In Paradise Lost manipulations were conceded in a similar fashion. A snake told Eve of a great fruit. He told her he was now as a man is and she would be as a god. The tyrannical