Examples Of Fate Vs Free Will In Macbeth
In WIlliam Shakespeare's Macbeth, fate vs. free will, among other themes, is expanded upon. This concept is often argued and discussed among English classes over what is fate and what is the choice of the titular main character, Macbeth. Since Macbeth deals with the supernatural, the concept of premonitions and, in turn, fate is revealed. This is where confusion comes in as some believe that because of the presence of premonitions in the story, many people automatically assume it’s all fate. However, other arguments say that Macbeth makes all of the choices on his own to reach the “vision” given to him. Some might also just be in the middle of the road and think that some of it is fate and some of it is free will.
The first act of the play
introduces witches right off of the bat. Shakespeare wants the audience to think that there is a supernatural force going on throughout this play. In Act I Scene III, Macbeth meets the witches who immediately hails him as King, and tell him all about how he is going to be the next King of Scotland. Macbeth’s mind turns to thoughts about killing the current King, Duncan, to make himself the true King of Scotland. This moment in the play is a strong argument for free will being used in the play. Since the witches just told Macbeth that he would be King, his mind made the conscious decision to simply think about killing somebody right away. This moment is not something that was destined to happen, Macbeth’s mind is clearly deranged which is why he thought about killing the King that was described as being too nice to murder.Macbeth could have easily made the same decision that his partner, Banquo did, and just simply wait it out to see what would happen if the witches’ vision turned out to be true.
On a similar vein, when Macbeth sees the supposed dagger in the second act, which is what finally makes Macbeth decide to kill Duncan, the audience can get a sense of some sort of manipulation. It is true, much later on in the play, the witches admit to purposefully manipulating Macbeth. This raises the argument of a fate predestined by the witches or Macbeth not having the will of mind to overcome what the witches are doing to him. It seems that not even Macbeth himself knows the answer to this question. He initially debates killing anybody but them becomes very paranoid as he willingly kills people without a second thought just to preserve his safety. This would have never happened if Macbeth was as strong of mind as he is of heart shown in the beginning of a play, where he is seen as a hero.
Towards the end, in act five, Macbeth slowly realizes his fate. He knows that the witches tricked him and it was inevitable to stop the things from happening. This is a point in the play where its more reasonable to believe that it is truly fate over free will that is controlling Macbeth. He accepts his fate but doesn’t go down without some sort of fight, even with the knowledge that he has. His fate, obviously, does come true and he ends up dying, just like the witches predicted.
The idea of Fate vs. Free Will in Macbeth is a hard decision to tackle. Shakespeare appeared to have made it deliberately ambiguous. With arguments for free will ranging from Macbeth being weak minded to Macbeth being overly paranoid and arguments of fate being witches’ manipulation to the prophecies, its an issue one can see from both sides. Macbeth is still studied intently and fate vs. free will is still argued over to this very day.
The first act of the play
introduces witches right off of the bat. Shakespeare wants the audience to think that there is a supernatural force going on throughout this play. In Act I Scene III, Macbeth meets the witches who immediately hails him as King, and tell him all about how he is going to be the next King of Scotland. Macbeth’s mind turns to thoughts about killing the current King, Duncan, to make himself the true King of Scotland. This moment in the play is a strong argument for free will being used in the play. Since the witches just told Macbeth that he would be King, his mind made the conscious decision to simply think about killing somebody right away. This moment is not something that was destined to happen, Macbeth’s mind is clearly deranged which is why he thought about killing the King that was described as being too nice to murder.Macbeth could have easily made the same decision that his partner, Banquo did, and just simply wait it out to see what would happen if the witches’ vision turned out to be true.
On a similar vein, when Macbeth sees the supposed dagger in the second act, which is what finally makes Macbeth decide to kill Duncan, the audience can get a sense of some sort of manipulation. It is true, much later on in the play, the witches admit to purposefully manipulating Macbeth. This raises the argument of a fate predestined by the witches or Macbeth not having the will of mind to overcome what the witches are doing to him. It seems that not even Macbeth himself knows the answer to this question. He initially debates killing anybody but them becomes very paranoid as he willingly kills people without a second thought just to preserve his safety. This would have never happened if Macbeth was as strong of mind as he is of heart shown in the beginning of a play, where he is seen as a hero.
Towards the end, in act five, Macbeth slowly realizes his fate. He knows that the witches tricked him and it was inevitable to stop the things from happening. This is a point in the play where its more reasonable to believe that it is truly fate over free will that is controlling Macbeth. He accepts his fate but doesn’t go down without some sort of fight, even with the knowledge that he has. His fate, obviously, does come true and he ends up dying, just like the witches predicted.
The idea of Fate vs. Free Will in Macbeth is a hard decision to tackle. Shakespeare appeared to have made it deliberately ambiguous. With arguments for free will ranging from Macbeth being weak minded to Macbeth being overly paranoid and arguments of fate being witches’ manipulation to the prophecies, its an issue one can see from both sides. Macbeth is still studied intently and fate vs. free will is still argued over to this very day.