Lady Macbeth Manipulation Essay

People are manipulated constantly. Whether it is an advertisement that they see or the people they talk to everyday, they are being exploited. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the manipulating forces within relationships is a very prominent theme. Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth throughout the tragedy to get what she wants. Her development and interactions revealed this theme.

When Lady Macbeth first finds out about how Macbeth is destined to be king, she quickly starts thinking of ways she can accelerate the process. She knows that if King Duncan is murdered then Macbeth will become king, but she also knows Macbeth is too kind to do such a task. She has to convince him to do it. The next time Lady Macbeth sees Macbeth, she says, “Look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye,/ Your hand, your tongue. Look like th' innocent flower,/ But be the serpent under ’t.” (Act I, scene v). This is an example of manipulation because Lady Macbeth is telling him what to do and how to do it. She says look innocent on the outside, but be ruthless on the inside. Macbeth unfortunately listens to his wife.

Later on in the story, Macbeth decides he will not go through with Duncan’s murder plot.

Lady Macbeth says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man.” (Act I, scene vii). Lady Macbeth disparages Macbeth by telling him he is not a man. She says a man would go through with his plan even if it includes murder. She acts like doing what is right is not the masculine way. This is manipulating Macbeth by belittling him into believing he will not be a man unless he kills Duncan. When Macbeth goes on to ask what happens if they fail, Lady Macbeth responds by saying they will not fail as long as he still has courage. That is manipulation because there will always be a chance to fail but she is deluding Macbeth of this

information.
After the murder is completed, Macbeth feels extremely guilty about what he has done. When Lady Macbeth hears about this, she is terrified that Macbeth will turn himself in, so she says, “These deeds must not be thought/ After these ways. So, it will make us mad.” (Act II, scene ii). She is telling him that he should not feel guilty because he will go psychotic. She declares that it is senseless to feel guilty for something even if it is as severe as murder. When she says this, she is not truly worried about her husband’s sanity. She was more worried about how she could get caught.
Lady Macbeth played a huge part in Duncan’s murder and Macbeth’s downfall. If she had not encourage and manipulate Macbeth to kill Duncan and then go on to say that what he did was justified, the story would have gone a completely different way. William Shakespeare decided he wanted one of the central themes of Macbeth to be manipulating forces within relationships, and he used the character Lady Macbeth mainly to show this using her development and interactions.