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Examples Of Fatalism In Macbeth

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This paper argues that the play Macbeth is driven by fatalism. All of Macbeth actions were driven by fate and it was his destiny so he had no control of what was going to happen. While research says the witches prophesied and told Macbeth, this paper says it would have happened even if the witches didn’t tell Macbeth.
Keywords: fatalism, Macbeth and human affairs
Fatalism in Macbeth The general argument made by Shakespeare in his work Macbeth is that fatalism causes all things to happen. More specifically, Shakespeare argues that Macbeth’s future was guaranteed before the witches told him. He writes “But even so, I’ll make doubly sure. I’ll guarantee my own fate by having you killed, Macduff.”. In this passage Macbeth is saying that if he …show more content…

When he responds to the news of Lady Macbeth's death by saying, "There would have been a time for such a word" (5.5.18),13 "word" does not mean only "message," and one understimates the degree of Macbeth's fatalism if the line is paraphrased to mean that there would have been a better time for such news.14 There is an old English proverb about the operation of Wyrd which says "After word comes weird"--as the OED glosses it, "The mention of a thing is followed by its occurrence."15 When Macbeth refers to his wife's death as a "word" he collapses the distinction between "word" and "weird," the saying of a thing and the thing itself. His promise that "This deed I'll do" (154) unintentionally parodies his earlier assertion that "I have done the deed" (2.2.14), where the emphatic past participle expressed the wish that the murder of Duncan "Might be the be-all and the end-all--here" (1.7.5). When "I have done the deed" turns into "This deed I'll do," the iteration suggests an endlessly reopening chain of …show more content…

O'Rourke says “His collapse of "tomorrows" into "yesterdays" grounds his fatalism in a denial of the reality of "time" itself as it is seen within a mortal perspective, and his detachment depends upon his approximation to a perspective which is superior to temporality and is inhabited, in Macbeth, by the "weyard sisters." The subversive metaphysics of Macbeth depersonifies this perspective which sees all time, all tomorrows and yesterdays, as simultaneous--that is, it removes the figure of "God," or the logos, from that position--but it does so without restoring freedom to human action. Even after replacing the figure of God with a trio of exaggeratedly fantastic figures that cannot inspire literal belief, Shakespeare binds all of the action of Macbeth to the vision of these figures. They do not cause events to occur, but neither can the action of the play be explained without reference to their prophecies.” Shakespeare called the witches weyard--or weyward because it meant they were fateful and they knew people’s fate. When Macbeth sees them they tell him his fate he doesn’t believe them but when he becomes thane of Cawdor he sees truth in the witch’s prophecies. Then when he becomes king he goes and get what he is told is his future and becomes king but when he goes back to the witches they tell him “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff. Beware the thane of Fife. Let me go. Enough. Be violent, bold, and firm. Laugh at

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