Fate can be sometimes considered inevitable or uncontrollable. All powerful beings may have existence mapped out from beginning to end. However, fate can also be considered reflective of decisions made in life: almost as if behavior throughout life decides the end. This is shown by William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, in which he focuses on the ambitious Macbeth, who is a once valorous hero turned evil. As the play is a horrifying tragedy, Macbeth travels through glory only to arrive at his inevitable fate. Although several characters can be charged for Macbeth’s fate, the original Thane of Glamis himself is the sole person to blame because of his actions throughout the play. One major influence to Macbeth’s poor life choices is his …show more content…
Macbeth crosses the witches path, receiving the prophecy, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! / All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! / All hail Macbeth, thou shalt be King hereafter!” (I.iii.48-50). The witches excite Macbeth by convincing him he is bound for greatness. Macbeth, upon hearing their prophecy, immediately has thoughts filling his head (participial) of prestigious kinghood. Even though the witches may have given Macbeth a push in the direction of evil leading to his fate, they still only put ideas in his mind, leaving Macbeth to control his own …show more content…
Macbeth’s acts cannot be attributed to his ambition once he has killed all of Macduff’s family. Since his family was gruesomely slaughtered, Macduff can only be inclined to seek revenge upon Macbeth. Macbeth has spent the entire play laying the foundation for his death by Macduff. The two finally meet with fierce tension, to which Macbeth urges, “Lay on, Macduff; / And damned be him that first cries ‘Hold, Enough!’” (V.viii.33-34). After a brief fight, Macduff slays Macbeth and declares an end to Scotland’s
Fate and prediction have played a big part of Macbeth and has persuaded him to become evil and the “Brave” Macbeth had died out as soon as he meets the witches’ and they tell him that his fate is to become the thane of Cawdor and soon become king; “All hail, Macbeth hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!” “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”. Macbeth does not know yet that the Thane of Cawdor had betrayed the king and went against him also he is being stripped of his Thaneship and is being executed, so he was surprised when the witches’ said that. Macbeth at first did not believe in his fate but when he gets the rob to be Thane of Cawdor he starts to believe his fate and then his mind skips to becoming king and killing Duncan this shows
Before Macbeth meets with Macduff, he thinks of ways to handle Macduff so he would no longer be a problem. Macduff was considered to be a problem because he left the kingdom in order to assist an opposing force. Macbeth states “Then live, Macduff: what need I fear of thee? But yet I’ll make assurance double sure, and take a bond of fate.” (Act IV scn i, ln 82-84) He wants to make sure Macduff will not be a problem; he wants to keep Macduff out of his way. In this scene Macbeth is attempting to discover ways to inforce his superiority through the phrase “The castle of Macduff I will surprise; seize upon Fife; give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword his wife, his babies, and all unfortunate souls.” (Act IV scn i, ln 150-152) He hired men to kill Macduff’s family, so he will be depressed and will grieve; he wants to keep Macduff out of the way of him still being King. The main reason he did this, however, was to exert his leadership over Macduff and send a message. This paragraph explains how Macbeth was disloyal to Macduff and how he did anything to keep Macduff out of his way, but things did not turn out as he
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, changes happen. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a well liked and good man of Scotland, who turns into an evil, cold hearted, murderer by the end. His rewards and punishments could have been predetermined by fate, but the actions he took to get to get those rewards and punishments were determined by Macbeth’s free will. In Macbeth, he attempts to control the future and hide the past by listening to other people and committing multiple murders of innocent people.
Macbeth's destiny and his lust for power, confirmed by the Three Witches and Lady Macbeth, leads to destruction. Every act that Macbeth commits effects the kingdom as a whole. Macbeth's indecisiveness and his understanding of success cause this destruction. This lust for power leads Macbeth, as it would all men, to an evil that exist in everyone. It is his destiny to fail.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy about a war hero named Macbeth, who follows his ambition with evil and who is repaid with evil. He is responsible for his own demise although only to a certain extent. There were many other factors that contributed to the tragic that could have been avoided - for example how the witches’ predictions are responsible for influencing Macbeth’s thoughts although ultimately no one told Macbeth to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth was also a very influential character which manipulated Macbeth into doing bad deeds however he is responsible for putting power into the hands of Lady Macbeth and letting her influence him. Finally, Macbeth acknowledges his guilt of wrongdoing and is thereby responsible for his
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there is a question as to whether or not Macbeth is driven by fate or free will. The three weird sisters approach Macbeth with prophecies that will all come true in the end. It would appear that Macbeth is just following destiny at first. However, Macbeth always had a choice throughout the play to choose his own fate. Macbeth journeyed to his murderous doom through his own free choice.
During several soliloquies and asides Macbeth expresses his "black and deep desires" (1.5.51) to become King and gradually overcomes his moral reluctance and foreboding long enough to kill Duncan. The independence of Macbeth in this decision is best described when he states:
Decisions you make can lead to the death of innocent people. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, examines the elements of fate and free will by the actions of others lead to the bloodshed of the innocent people in the play such as Banquo, Duncan and Lady Macduff and her child. Consequently even though Macduff's actions are for the greater good to stopping Macbeth, it comes at the ultimate cost of the life of his wife and child.
Fate is one person's destiny, it cannot be understood by mere mortals but a greater power beyond human comprehension. Fate is so powerful that it controls a person's outcome on life before it happens. Many people become victims of fate in which they catch a glimpse of what their future is going to look like, but do not totally grasp the outcome. Macbeth cannot fully comprehend the possible outcome of his fate because he is mortal, and therefore is a victim to his power driven quest and his ultimate fate. Many have been said to agree with this statement. For example, as stated in Shakespeare A to Z, "The Witches are an enactment of the irrational. The supernatural world if terrifying because it is beyond human control, and in the play it is
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.
Yet after his encounter with the witches, his mind was going back and forth trying to figure out how he should act upon the prophecy of becoming king! It was by then that the idea of fate had been planted into his head, and with such good title to come with it, why wouldn’t he want to believe his ‘fate’? Something that I found very interesting about the witches was that looking closely at line 24-25 when one of the witches says, "Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed." From what I seemed to understand, these lines seemed to really show the limitations to the witches’ powers, because they were basically saying that they could only make life rough for the clueless captain, but they could not kill him. I think that this is really important to all the people who thought that the witches had ‘written out’ Macbeth’s fate because in the same way as the previous stated scene they can tempt Macbeth with predictions about his future, but they cannot make him choose evil. Meaning that in this scene, one of the conflicts is obviously fate vs. free will! All the witches really did was find a way of stirring up evil, by tempting Macbeth into choosing to opt for evil instead of good. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” (Act 1. Scene iii. Line 10). Here, Macbeth seems content to leave his future to "chance." If "chance" will have
Macbeth has many themes such as tyranny, ambition, and destiny that are essential to understand the the play. They are all intertwined and affect the other themes, but arguably the most important theme is of fate. Shakespeare's Macbeth makes viewers ponder their view on fate to interpret the story. Shakespeare asks the audience if fate exists at all and how it affects the events that unfold in his story. The answer of whether fate exists or not and how so is never stated. It is purposely left open for interpretation in any way the viewer pleases. Despite the lack of answer, the answer itself is implied and impacts Macbeth and its meaning. That answer is that Macbeth’s destiny is controlled by fate, but fate has no control over how he achieves
In the play Macbeth, almost all of the characters go through a change. The way the characters change in this play are critical to central plot of the play. The theme of Macbeth is fate and free will. Macbeth listened to the the witches and committed regicide, which causes many characters to change for better or worse, and a very scarce few to stay the same. Macbeth, the main character of the play, has the most polar character change out of all the characters.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare presents the tale of an ambitious Scottish nobleman, that will stop at nothing to ensure his position as the king. Throughout the play, Shakespeare presents the power fate has on a person through Macbeth and Banquo, two characters who´s fates are determined by witches from the beginning.
As stated, for those who withhold power, the question of its survivability will constantly protrude. But, when this thought develops and grows, it engrosses the mind, leaving no thought but that of worry, and only then does it become inevitable. As Thomas Hardy explains, “The best tragedy – highest tragedy in short – is that of the worthy encompassed by the inevitable” (317). The worthy, obviously being Macbeth, and the inevitable being his thoughts. In his thoughts lie paranoia, delusions, and restlessness. All rooted from realizing that the inevitable happened, and continues to happen. The source of inevitability comes immediately from the Three Witches, they told him he would be Thane of Cawdor and the king, and once he found that The Witches