Examples Of Free Will In Macbeth

      Lady Macbeth has seen Macbeth's weakness, his lack of manliness.  She is too afraid to commit the murder of Duncan, and must assure Macbeth that it is his duty.  She accomplished this goal by making fun of him and arousing his jealousy instincts.

   Destiny "Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." (William Jennings Bryan) Are we in control of our own destiny, our own fate, or are our lives really already planned and mapped out for us? Does Macbeth willfully choose evil in order to achieve his "destiny"? Or, is his "destiny" doomed by the witches' prophecies? Macbeth may not have made any of his same choices, if the three Weird sisters hadn't come to him. In Shakespeare's play Macbeth, Macbeth is no pawn of fate. Although Macbeth was destined to become king, the path he chose to take to achieve his aspiration of obtaining the throne was of his own free

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the antagonist Macbeth is influenced and motivated by his wife Lady Macbeth to plan and execute vicious acts. Lady Macbeth is presented as a villainous character as she instigates her husband into committing horrendous acts starting with the murder of Duncan. She implant’s the idea of violence into Macbeth’s mind. And constantly manages to feed Macbeth’s thoughts with heartless and unfavorable comments. “When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would..be so much more than the man” (1.7.47-51). Lady Macbeth cleverly uses these quotes to mock Macbeth’s ability to behave like a man. She questions Macbeth’s identity and uses him as a pawn to complete her plan. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth that he would be more than a man if he committed the murder and that this would benefit him.

In many stories fate is said to determine the paths that people lead in their lives. However, even though some events can seem like fate to the people experiencing them, these people always made their own decisions that led to them. Although some of the events in the tragedy Macbeth by William Shakespeare may lead readers to believe that fate determined many of Macbeth’s actions, the truth is that Macbeth made all of the decisions in the story through his own free will.

Throughout the story of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth acts in a much despised manner: he becomes a murderer and later, when king of Scotland, a tyrant. Many who have read or seen the play are left wondering how a man’s whole approach to life can change; how Macbeth turned from the hero whom all adored, to the tyrant who was hated and ended up a lone man, fighting for his life.

While Lady Macbeth believes that men are superior when it comes to power and warfare, the effect that she has on Macbeth’s actions manages to change the outcome of the entire play. This speech illustrates a prominent power relation in the text - Lady Macbeth and the power that she has over her husband. While Macbeth is the one carrying out the deeds, Lady Macbeth, at least at the beginning of the play, is the brains behind the operation and manages to maintain a certain amount of control over him. “When you durst do it, then you were a man.” - Lady Macbeth. Being a man is something Macbeth cares about strongly, and Lady Macbeth manages to harness this desire of Macbeth’s to keep the power in their relationship. This speech is revealing because it manages to expose the inner workings of the relationship between the two

“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet for I fear thy nature; It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way” (Shakespeare 1.5.12-15). Lady Macbeth is the bad influence Macbeth has in his life that persuades him into killing King Duncan and rushes into being King. Before Macbeth became paranoid after the brutal death of King Duncan, he was a worthy captain of the kings army. “The service and the loyalty I owe in doing it pays itself. Your Highness’ part is to receive our duties, and our duties are to your throne and state children and servants, which do but what they should by doing everything safe toward your honor and love” (Shakespeare

Macbeth’s Free Will The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is about a Scotsman who, after hearing a prophecy from three witches, decides to murder the king of Scotland so that he can gain power and become the king. After he does this, he kills many people in order to preserve his reign. Since Macbeth kills so many people, many people do not like Macbeth, two of which are Macduff and Malcolm. These two have had their families killed and seek revenge on Macbeth. To do this, they build an army from England and fight Macbeth eventually leading to Macbeth’s death.

The ideas about fate versus free will are constantly debated throughout Macbeth. The main reason behind Macbeth’s actions is the idea of fate that caused Macbeth to use his own free will. Shakespeare is the puppet master with the character Macbeth by dangling fate in front of him, but at the same time, it is Macbeth’s own desire and intellectual views that lead him to suffer his foreshadowed fate. Macbeth had his fate going one way, but through his own free will he was able to take a different turn.

Whether it be the choice of what breakfast cereal to eat in the morning, what college to attend, or what career to pursue, choices are a fundamental part of the human experience, and they have been written about since the inception of literature. Jean Nidetch once wrote, “It’s choice - not chance - that determines your destiny. The concept of destiny and free will has been argued throughout history, and this concept is exemplified in the story of Macbeth. Macbeth perfectly exemplifies this maxim, as his conscious choices throughout the story determined his destiny. Macbeth’s fate was not set in stone, he made the conscious choice to commit the atrocities he did.

At first, it almost seems like Macbeth is just a pawn of fate with such external influences like the witches and his wife pushing him towards murder and evil. Later on however, Macbeth proves to be a man of free will. He consciously chooses to let external factors influence his decisions. Although the Witches, and Lady Macbeth try to push Macbeth into his actions, he ultimately made the final decisions, therefor he acts as an agent of free will Lady Macbeth, and the witches convince Macbeth towards regicide, but this influence they had on him did not control his actions.

Macbeth was completely driven by his own free will in making the choices that he did in Shakespeare's Macbeth. If he were controlled by destiny, he would not have felt so guilty of his actions. The witches may have predicted the future, but they are not the direct reason that made Macbeth so ruthless on his journey to the crown. His ambition is what caused him to make such blatant choices. He set himself up for his dramatic downfall through his own decisions.

Macbeth's true character is revealed in his thougths. Macbeth expresses these thoughts when he is thinking to himself "If chance will haveme King. Why,chance may crown me wihout my stir."(I,iii,143-144). But The thought of murdering the King, or anyone, fills him with horror, and this is why he writes to Lady Macbeth, seeking her support.After the support of Lady Macbeth and with the meeting with the witches eventually does kill his King.

For example, when he is indecisive about the plans to kill King Duncan, Lady Macbeth labels him a coward. When Macbeth defends himself by explaining that he is doing all that can be expected of a man, she replies, "When you durst do it, then you were a man"(1.7.49). She claims that no real man would back down and refuse to follow through with an act he had agreed to, and that, if he does so, she, herself, would be considered more of a man than he. As Max Huhner points out in one of his essays, Lady Macbeth, like many of Shakespeare's other female characters, is presented as being "more vindictive, revengeful, spiteful, and mean. . .than any man would be"(87). She boasts of her own aggression as she states:

Great evil is demonstrated in Macbeth’s character due to his vicious ambition and ruthless attitude. Macbeth was able to murder such a generous person, especially someone that gave you many blessings so it can be inferred that he is capable of much worse. In fact, he later exclaims “That I did kill them” claiming to have killed the men who “killed” Duncan (2.3.104). Macbeth blames two innocent men for his immoral actions, yet it is once again seen as a decision made by his wife or as a way to protect her. The fact that Macbeth easily shrugs off his actions and pretends he has no knowledge of the event depicts an evil side of him that is coming out into the light.