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Free Will In Macbeth

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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.
Despite the common association between the supernatural and fate, Macbeth made all of his decisions throughout the play with his own free will, including choosing to fulfill the prophecies of the supernatural. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth stated that “If chance will …show more content…

He would accept the role as king if it was offered to him, but he was not planning on taking it himself. Some may see this as evidence that his actions were fated because of how he killed the king anyway, but the murder was entirely his own free will, shown when he said “a dagger of the mind, a false creation… Thou marshal’st me the way that I was going” beforehand (2.1.50). This dagger that he was seeing was not real, but was a representative of what he was thinking. He had been wanting to kill the king the whole time, and his statements against this were just himself trying to convince himself otherwise. In this situation, he had just chosen to make the prophecies come true, and had not been forced in any way. He also chose to follow the predictions of the apparitions, such as when he states that “Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane, I cannot taint with fear” (5.3.2). He …show more content…

In the beginning of the play, a group of witches prophesize that Macbeth would become king, and Macbeth decides to act on this and kill the king himself. After killing Duncan, he states that “There is none but (Banquo) whose being I do fear” and decides to kill him as well (3.1.59). He heard the witches say that Banquo’s sons would be kings, which threatened Macbeth’s position. Therefore, because Banquo and his family would likely become a threat, Macbeth killed them. This choice to remove Banquo was in order to protect himself, and was a result of the free will that he had. Similarly, in the final act when an army was rebelling against him, he told his staff to “Hang those that talk of fear” (5.3.43). He did not want fear to spread through his town because this would weaken his defense, and so this statement was another example of protecting himself. In fact, this command illustrates his free will even further because none of the supernatural had anything to do with it, showing that the decision was made completely by free will. However, some may say that these examples of removing his enemies were a result of the fated desires of the supernatural, such as when Macbeth said “Hear (the bell) not, Duncan, for it is a knell that summons thee to heaven or to hell”

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