preview

Essay On Fate In Macbeth

Decent Essays

Many people believe in ‘Fate’, and argue over the role of ‘Fate’ in everyday life. Does Fate control us, or are we masters of our own fate? Many people have wondered over this question for decades, centuries even. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare tries to shed a light on the answer. Are Macbeth’s actions predetermined, or are they his own choice?
The three witches seem to represent ‘Fate’, or ‘The Order of Things’, and know about events that have yet to happen. For example, in Act 1, Scene 3, Lines 49 and 50, the Witches say “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to Thee, Thane of Cawdor!” and “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” This tells Macbeth and Banquo that Macbeth will be King and Thane of Cawdor, even though the Thane of Cawdor, and the King, still live. Do the three witches have the power to move through time, like we flip the pages to look through the play? The power to travel through time would certainly enable the witches to know what they know! But role do the witches play? Are they responsible for Macbeth’s traitorous rise to kingship? Or are they simply responsible for planting the ‘seeds’ of betrayal in Macbeth?
At first Macbeth does not believe the …show more content…

The only reason that Macbeth became king was because Malcolm, next in line to the throne, became suspected because of his leaving Scotland to mourn Duncan’s death. This was something Macbeth couldn’t anticipate, why would Macbeth kill the king if it wasn’t certain that he would become king? Had Malcolm stayed in Scotland, and somehow proved himself to the people of Scotland, Macbeth would be the suspected person instead, because the king was killed in his home, leaving Macbeth worse off than he started. Maybe our ‘free will’ doesn’t force fate one way, but rather our ‘free will’ changes how we arrive to our fates. After all, even though Malcolm is pronounced prince, there was a chance that later in his life Macbeth might have become

Get Access