Fate And Free Will In Macbeth Essay

Macbeth demonstrates an important lesson. It demonstrates that having too much power makes people make harsh decisions. It also shows you should trust your best judgement and not always the one that you are told to do. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare Macbeth is visited by witches that tell him he will be king. He first thinks nothing of it, but when his wife hears of the prophecy she pushes him to fulfil his “destiny”. His wife convinces him to kill the king so he can be crowned. After killing the king, he executes the chamberlains to show his new power as king. Macbeth and his wife kill, or try to execute the next people in line, to ensure that they stay in power. They become greedy for power and abuse the power they already have. At the end of the play Macbeth and his wife get what they deserve, which is death.

Fate versus free will is a huge theme in the play Macbeth. It is Macbeth's fate that leads his free will to act the way he does. When the witches say "All hail Macbeth the future king" (I.iii.51) it leads Macbeth down a road of death and self-destruction. If Macbeth hadn't known

Fate vs Free Will is one of the most oft used literary techniques in writing. It is never more evident than in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. The major theme of the story Macbeth is whether or not the story is fueled by the free will of Macbeth, or by his fate. Are the events in Macbeth a result of his mentality and outlook on life, or were they going to happen no matter what? Almost every major event that takes place can be traced back to this question. It can be viewed in different ways, and most people have their own opinions. Dissecting this question is a part of what makes teaching Macbeth still have so much value to this day. But there is a clear answer to this question upon further dissection. The story of Macbeth is fueled by his free

Many people who have read William Shakespeare’s Macbeth know that Macbeth is the tragic hero in the play, but there another character stands out as a much greater protagonist. Macbeth is the type of character who turned from a loyal warrior to the king into a violent, tyrannical, and conflicted person as he progressively commits crimes inside the kingdom without anyone’s notice, except for one person, who is Macduff. Macduff doesn’t have any flaws and remains sinless and heroic throughout the play. As Macbeth progressively gains power and prestige in exchange for the lives of his king, his friends, and his countrymen, Macduff meanwhile goes through great personal loss in his attempts to stop Macbeth’s tyrannical ruling and to restore justice and freedom to Scotland. It is ironic how Macduff acts so much more nobly than his king. Throughout the tragic events that have occurred in the play, Macduff serves as a heroic figure through his demonstrations of intelligence, loyalty, and righteousness.

People have control over what they do in life, but not everyone thinks before they do. Some of the actions that people do commit may result in positive or negative outcomes. In Shakespeare Macbeth, Macbeth the main character suffers many consequences because of the bad decisions that he has made in order to get himself in power and to keep his power from those who may want to take it away from him, this may lead to consequences that the character faces in the future. Macbeth is expected to be a loyal and courageous soldier that the audience may not think to be a murdures, unloyal and disobedient person. Throughout Macbeth, Macbeth is successful of becoming king because of the influence of Lady Macbeth of telling Macbeth to kill him. Although Macbeth does obtain all this power Shakespeare does not allow him to live the good life for long, instead he makes him suffer through the witches that tell him the prophecies about how powerful he will become. That makes him very confident and that is where all his actions are that lead to consequences that he suffers throughout the book. At the end of the play Macbeth is not rewarded for the actions that he has committed to become king but shows how Macbeth’s actions lead to his death at the end.

Humans will go to great extents to achieve what we want, especially power. We understand right and wrong, but we choose wrong or cruelty if it benefits us and our goals. But, everything comes with a price, so how do the choices we make affect the people around us and us? In the tragedy Macbeth, William Shakespeare develops the idea how the cruel decisions taken by the characters came with consequences that could not be escaped. This idea was presented through the characters: Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, and Macduff.

Any sensible person would like to think that not just anyone can become a murderer. However, debates about how human nature and nurture influence people continue today as they did in the past. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare plays with this idea using the influences and characterization of Macbeth. At the start of the play, Macbeth and Banquo win a battle for Scotland and Macbeth is rewarded with the title of Thane of Cawdor right after 3 witches predict that he will become the Thane of Cawdor and the new King. Macbeth is now convinced he has to be the king, his wife, Lady Macbeth helps him with his plan. Although he succeeded in becoming king, he really just started his own downfall where in order to stay in power, he has to betray many old friends. Macbeth is influenced by society and others. The desires inside him become overruling. In the end, the negative influences win. Although he has many influences in his life, in the end, Macbeth gives in the forces that end up destroying him.

In Macbeth, Shakespeare demonstrates how free choice is the cause of the downfall of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. There are many examples showing this in the play. The first example shown in Macbeth is when Macbeth decides he must kill King Duncan. The three witches tell him his original fate, that he would become the Thane of Cawdor, and the King “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter” (Macbeth Act 1 Sc. 3 li. 56-57).

Three things affect humans free will: religion, friends/family, and their desires. Choices others make affect everyone around them regardless of intentions; this is what many refer to as the "Butterfly effect." The Butterfly effect is "The scientific theory that a single occurrence, no matter how small, can change the course of the universe forever" (Butterfly+effect para 1). How one chooses to interact with those around them will ultimately affect everyone in some way. In The Tragedy of Macbeth William Shakespeare uses diction and metaphors to represent how people’s free will is affected by religious groups, friends/family, and their personal desires.

Every action has a reaction. Whether it is receiving a punishment for staying out too late on a school night or murdering the reigning king in order to fulfil a prophecy and seize the country. William Shakespeare’s vision of evil is displayed throughout the tragedy Macbeth and shapes the development of the play greatly. The evil in Macbeth abolishes relationships between husband and wife and also amongst close friends. Coupled with vigorously destroying the mental health of many characters it creates multitudes of destruction in Scotland. Malicious deeds destroy countless relationships, psychological well-beings and the prosperity of a country.

Throughout the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth continuously commit crimes because they believe it will aid them in following fate’s plans. However, if you look deeper into the text, many of the decisions made and crimes committed were made with the characters free will. The characters may have thought that the choices they made were benefiting their fate and destiny but it actually resulted in their fate changing. For example, Macbeth was meant to eventually be king however, the decisions he made on his free will altered his fate and ended with him dying. In modern day society, This concept is still common but is seen in different situations than in Macbeth.

In Act II, Scene III, Macbeth cries out silently, “I am afraid to think what I have done/Look on’t again I dare not.” His choice to murder Duncan made him fill up with guilt and regret, which is how free will leads to consequences. Remember that he could have let chance make him king, but he was so desperate that instead he took matters into his own hands and that ladies and gentlemen is how free will works.

Some people say that a person’s fate is pre-determined. That nothing they do in life is by accident and everything that one does has been decided by a higher power. In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare explores the theme of fate by allowing the audience to be party to his characters’ destiny. In the opening lines of the play the audience is told what is going to happen to the lovers, “a pair of star-crossed lovers take their life.” Throughout the story, the audience is put in an omnipotent, god-like position from the start encouraging them to think about fate and to what extent our actions are free. In Macbeth, the idea of one character becoming both victim and villain is introduced. Macbeth falls prey to others' deception, and is supplanted

Brodi Ashton said, “heroes are made by the paths they choose, not the powers they are graced with.” Fate is an irrevocable concept that does not rest in the hands of mankind. Macbeth believes that fate is the only thing responsible for his downfall, but he forgets that the witches were never controlling him. Throughout the duration of the play, Macbeth essentially drowns in his sins, so plentiful that he himself loses count. No matter what he did, he did not want to take responsibility. He blames it on the prophecy, when it is, and always has been, his own hand committing the crime.

Throughout history, people always have a choice to control their own fate. Due to his well thought out decisions at the start of the play, Macbeth experiences a calm environment which plays a massive role in his stable mindset. Similarly, throughout the progression of the play, crazed decisions force Macbeth, the new King, to drift away from those around him as he begins his progression into lunacy. As well, Macbeth’s eventual complete loss of sanity is attributed to him acting without caution, and abusing his power as King. In his play, Macbeth, William Shakespeare, through the tragic hero of Macbeth, demonstrates that a person’s decisions have consequences, as the reader witnesses how Macbeth’s deliberate choices and actions made from freewill contribute to his progressive descent into madness. By making decisions that are deliberately planned, one’s mental state has the ability to benefit greatly.