Preview

Macbeth: Fate Vs Free Will

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
164 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Macbeth: Fate Vs Free Will
In Macbeth’s course, free will is more significant than fate. Fate interfered in the story, of course: if the witches didn’t predict all the things that would happen, Macbeth would not have had some ideas of things to do. But all he did was controlled by himself, he was the one to choose those acts. Throughout the story, he changed some things that were predicted, which also proves that fate wasn’t that significant, at all. Fate can’t be a way to justify all the actions someone commits, because then it is easy to blame other factors for something that was done by someone’s decisions. Everything Macbeth did were his decisions and actions, not a bigger force that acted on him and made him do it. Macbeth’s course was influenced by fate in some

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    To begin with, in the play Macbeth. It is difficult to avoid fate, because the protagonist Macbeth is directly given the approach of fate by the witches through a seductive mean. This realization was quoted by the witches, they said,"[a]ll hail, Macbeth Hail to thee, thane of Glamis/all hail Macbeth Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!/ All hail, Macbeth Hail to thee, thou shall be King hereafter!" (Shakespeare 1.3.49-51). This quote demonstrates that the witches are helping out Macbeth to give him future information. This quote could have been avoidable if Macbeth was not told that he will become the thane of Glamis and Cawdor, because him knowing the future it allows him to plan events that will allow him to become king faster. Macbeth started…

    • 169 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fate is more significant in determining Macbeth’s course, who is the main character of the play “Macbeth” which was written by Shakespeare. The following phrases said respectively by the second witch and the third witch: “ All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!” “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” are clearly examples of fate determining Macbeth's course. These two phrases of Act 1, Scene 3 said by the witches suggest a prophecy, which says that Macbeth shall become the Thane of Cawdor and later on, he shall become the King of Scotland. Another example of fate determining Macbeth's course occurs when Macbeth is killed by MacDuff, the Thane of Fife. The witches in Act 4, Scene 1 told Macbeth a prophecy, which is: “Beware…

    • 238 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Fate vs. Freewill

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In Shakespeare’s Tragedy Macbeth, it is very debatable if fate, or freewill is what causes Macbeth to do the things he does through out the tragedy. Freewill is at work most through out the tragedy because Macbeth is convinced he can change or speed up the fate the three weird sisters prophesized for him at his own will. Throughout the play, Macbeth slowly begins to think he can modify his fate by using the prophecies told to Macbeth by the weird sisters and attempting to change them by his free will.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the moment the witches tell Macbeth and Banquo their prophecies, both of them are wondered about fate, is it real? Is my action necessary to make it come to pass, or will the prophecy come true no matter what we do? Different characters answer the question in different ways. In the play, fate has been playing an important role in the lives of Macbeth, lady Macbeth and Banquo. The final answers are ambiguous- fate is fixed, and is weaved by our free will., but fate knows what are we going to do. Macbeth is the one who’s trying to master his fate. After the fulfillment of the first prophecy, he begins to believe in the witches’ prophecies, his willingness to do whatever is necessary to become the king of Scotland have killed his reason, firstly, he kills Duncan, because only with Duncan’s untimely death, he may become the king. Macbeth has to kill him before he appoints one of his son to be the heir. Short after, fate plays a role in the death of Macbeth, because the witches are…

    • 3357 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth Fate Quotes

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It is said that fate does not choose it’s own victims, but it’s victims choose their own fate. In the tragedy Hamlet by Shakespeare, it is evident that the tragic hero, Macbeth, chooses his own fate and creates his own downfall. With greed, hubris and mistrust, Macbeth chooses and shapes his own destiny. Macbeth’s greed for power leads to the mistrust of those around him and in the end forms his fatal downfall. If the evil inside Macbeth was not to have overtaken the good, his ending may have concluded otherwise.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When knowing the fate of life, and acting to fulfill it, is it still fate or has it turned into free will? This question comes into effect when examining the life of Macbeth in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The witches tell Macbeth that he will later become king and he acts towards fulfilling this prophecy. He was told his fate and he made decisions that led him to become king by his own choice. Macbeth was using free will when he murdered Duncan because it was his choice to kill the king and his planning and execution that ended up making him king.…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For this assignment I will be describing the story Macbeth, and if it is a tragedy of fate…

    • 624 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, the reader is left to ponder the question of whether fate or free will is responsible for Macbeth's actions. Some people believe that the three sisters control Macbeth's fate and that he is as much a victim as King Duncan and his grooms, while others believe that Macbeth, alone, is responsible for his actions. Although fate has a part in Macbeth's decisions, the story is a tragedy of character. The witches prophesy that Macbeth will someday be king and Lady Macbeth rouses his hidden aspirations and desires, but it is Macbeth's ambition that gives rise to the poor decisions he makes to fulfill the prophecy.…

    • 602 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare shows that free choice rather than fate is responsible for the downfall of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth had many instances that he could have stopped creating destruction in the lives of both himself and the other people in his life. Coincidentally, if he had chosen not to kill so many people, he himself would not have been killed. Macbeth decides to let Lady Macbeth pressure him into killing the King. This was the first instance of free will. Had he chosen not to kill him, he would not have turned into such a cold-blooded killer. All of deaths that occur because Macbeth is trying to climb to the top can all be summed up into free choice. He chose to kill the king, so now why couldn’t he keep killing? It is not like it…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth's Choices Analysis

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Decision making is part of everyday life, these choices one decides on lead towards the fate of an individual. Since death is inevitable, the fate that one chooses is the only thing others can learn from. Therefore, making moral decisions is important because it is the only thing others remember of an individual. In William Shakespeare “Macbeth”, many factors and characters influence the main character in making decisions. Despite such influences he is responsible for his fates’ outcome due to the fact, that he controls his own destiny by the choices he wants to make with no one forcing him to choose those decisions. Although, Macbeth’s choices are drastically impacted by the witches’ through their prophecies, Lady Macbeth controlling tendencies…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Macbeth, the famous play written by Shakespeare, has a numerous amount of factors that contribute to the untimely fate of Macbeth. Hecate, the Greek Goddess of sorcery, crossroads, ghosts, and necromancy, scolded the three witches for spoiling Macbeth’s fate by telling him the path he was eventually going to end up taking. Insinuating that they knew his fate, they told him that he would become Thane of Cawdor and continue on to gain the title of king. Macbeth’s murdering of the king was the path that he was always going to take-- it was his fate.…

    • 920 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth is about the collapse of the man led by ambition of himself who had honor and power before. The scenes playing in the 11th century Scotland. During the play, Macbeth deals with his ambition and fate, also his people around. As the play goes on, we see the pattern that fate versus free will pretty much of the scenes and words of characters.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As seen in Macbeth, Shakespeare has a tendency to rattle with someones fate and free will. Macbeth goes to see the three weird sisters hears them talk of his fate and finds it quiet appealing to kimself. In what he heard he never had to act on it but as he did it put him in a very bad situation. So as it might seem I believe that Shakespeare intended for Macbeth to have free will over fate being permanent in his life. Macbeth does not have to kill all the people that he did because he could of achieved his goal in becoming king a very different way, but as we know he does murder king…

    • 422 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    For centuries, there has been lots debate on whether or not there is such thing as fate or free will. To this day, people are trying to decide if one’s life is already laid out for him/her and that if no matter what he/she does that it will still unfold in a preset way, in which that they cannot change, or if one has free will and the ability to completely change his/her life. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, is not doomed by fate, but by free will. In particular, Shakespeare’s Macbeth demonstrates that it is not fate that determines one's life as it is one's flaws and choices. This is illustrated through Macbeth himself, who, first, makes the choice of not listening to his conscience, which continuously makes…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Macbeth

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the era of Macbeth, many of the beliefs were based upon fate. It was a major part of the culture and how everything happens for a reason. In this play by Shakespeare, fate is corrupted by the main character Macbeth; this corruption unbalances the universe. Macbeth provides an example of contradicting the beliefs in this time frame, eventually fate restores the kingdom and the universe balances out. “Tragedy, according to Aristotle, involves usually a noble man fighting against his fate which lies in the hands of God” ( Jean-François Vernay. Literary Contexts in Plays: William Shakespeare 's 'Macbeth '). According to this quote by Vernay, it relates to Macbeth and all the other Shakespearean tragedies. In Macbeth, the main character was a noble man in the beginning and does fight against his fate. At first he tries to make his fate come faster and then later Macbeth tries to contradict it. While, it was really planned out for him the whole time. Macbeth is corrupted by power, causing him to make decisions that interfere with fate, in which witches tell Macbeth he is destined to be king; however, Malcolm is the one who is next in line. Macbeth does anything he can to get the crown which leads to chaos in the kingdom. He kills anyone who is in his way which causes the whole creation of unbalance, arrogance and power corrupts his mind, and once Macbeth is killed the kingdom is restored.…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays