Comparing Control In Les Miserables And Macbeth

Control, “the power to influence or direct people's behavior or the course of events.”. Now compare that to the definition of power, “the ability to do something or act in a particular way”.They may both have similar definitions. Power and control have very few things that separate them. Power is the ability to make something happen, whereas control is not only making something happen but also making it go the way one wants it to. Power and control play major roles in both Les Miserables and Macbeth. When one is intimidating enough to alter or make another's decisions, they are not only giving themselves power, but also mistreating others in the process. By abusing their power, others are made to feel unworthy of making their own actions.

Not only do they play major roles in their stories, but they both abuse the power they have. When looking at M. Thenardier, it’s noticeable that he knows how to manipulate and guilt people to get what he wants. Ms. Thenardier does the same thing, she is able to take the small amount of control she had over cosette and basically make her their property, instead of a child. Lady Macbeth is a prime example of power being abused and someone taking control of another's life forcefully. Lady Macbeth knows how intimidating she is to Macbeth, she uses this to her advantage by making Macbeth do things he wouldn't normally do. Such as in act I, when she and Macbeth have a conversation about killing King Duncan, when Macbeth then starts changing his mind, Lady macbeth continuously puts him down by telling him he isn’t acting like a man and how much of a coward he is. Later on in the story, Banquo is killed by two people that Macbeth had managed to convince. In this scenario, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are abusing their power. Lady Macbeth was encouraging Macbeth on planning banquo's death. Macbeth used his title as king to intimidate the two murderers to go out during the big dinner to go kill banquo and his