macbeth essay about fate

William Shakespeare

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From the moment the weird sisters tell Macbeth and Banquo their prophecies, both the characters and the audience are forced to wonder about fate. Is it real? Is action necessary to make it come to pass, or will the prophecy come true no matter what one does? Different characters answer these questions in different ways at different times, and the final answers are ambiguous—as fate always is.

Unlike Banquo, Macbeth acts: he kills Duncan . Macbeth tries to master fate, to make fate conform to exactly what he wants. But, of course, fate doesn't work that way. By trying to master fate once, Macbeth puts himself in the position of having to master fate always. At every instant, he has to struggle against those parts of the witches' prophecies that don't favor him. Ultimately, Macbeth becomes so obsessed with his fate that he becomes delusional: he becomes unable to see the half-truths behind the witches' prophecies. By trying to master fate, he brings himself to ruin.

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Fate Quotes in Macbeth

Macbeth Fate Essay

Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the downfall of Macbeth, a Scottish lord and later King. Macbeth goes through three stages in his life: initially noble and just, then corrupted into committing regicide to attain power and eventually suffering from guilt. Macbeth’s tragic flaw or error is his ambition which leads him to murder the King, Duncan, in order to take his place. Macbeth is later visited by three apparitions or witches who predict Macbeth’s downfall.

This leads Macbeth to believe that he has free choice when in fact the course of Macbeth’s life was already predetermined. Several times throughout Macbeth Macbeth is reminded of the prophecies made by the witches. Macbeth is constantly questioning whether he has free will or not. Macbeth phrases questions such as, “Is this a dagger which I see before me? ” Macbeth constantly refers to different sources of power during Macbeth’s lifetime including fate, prophecy, and “supernatural soliciting.

Macbeth’s language is extremely significant in Macbeth. Macbeth changes his perspective on fate because of the witch’s prophecies that he has free choice and will be king. Macbeth often questions whether his actions are right or wrong, but eventually Macbeth sees himself as good person who struggles to do the right thing. Macbeth’s perspective on the witches and their prophecies change over time. MacBeth believes that the witches prediction of MacDuff taking his place as king is wrong because MacDuff already had a claim to royalty.

Years later, Macbeth calls Banquo’s issue with Fleance a “weakness in his prophecy” Macbeth views MacDuff as a threat because MacDuff is the rightful heir to the throne. MacBeth does not believe in fate for most of Macbeth’s life; he believes that he has free will and makes his own decisions. MacBeth’s perspective changes over time after being visited by different people including witches, Banquo, MacDuff, and Macbeth’s wife. This changes Macbeth’s perspective on fate and free will because Macbeth begins to be more aware of the influences of others on his decisions.

Macbeth is a dramatic tragedy by William Shakespeare about Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis and later also Than of Cawdor, who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. The story is an expanded version of a tale from “Holinshed’s Chronicles”, a history of Britain familiar to Shakespeare. Macbeth becomes a heroic protagonist of his country and his personal ambition leads him to great risk as time passes. In the end, Macbeth loses everything – power, title and even his life – because he cannot overcome the influence of evil or defy fate.

Fate is defined as predestination: things that have been decided or ordained to happen in advance. Macbeth is a tragedy of Macbeth’s ambition leading him to ruin despite his heroism in the face of overwhelming forces. Macbeth begins with Macduff and Lennox discussing the strange events regarding predictions made by three witches about Macbeth. Macduff, being sceptical, does not believe that Macbeth will become king at all, whereas Lennox believes Macbeth was meant to be king from birth.

This conversation foreshadows Macbeth’s eventual downfall because he does become King but also because he cannot escape fate; it comes to control his life instead of allowing him to make his own decisions. When Macduff goes back to Scotland, Duncan names him Thane of Fife, Macbeth’s home county. Macbeth is initially happy and honoured to hear this news, but when Macduff then rebels against Macbeth and kills many members of the royal family, Macbeth does not even try to convince Macduff that he would be a better king than Duncan.

This shows that Macbeth wants power too much to risk it all for his friends or family. Fate controls Macbeth because he could have saved lives by making decisions other than murder, such as imprisoning Macduff so his country would still have a leader. However, Macbeth makes these bad choices because he thinks they will give him more power in the long run; whether his actions are good or evil does not matter, as Macbeth is not truly in control of his life. Macbeth’s fate is sealed when Macduff and Malcolm come to fight Macbeth.

Macbeth regrets his decision to kill Duncan, as he says “I am in blood/Stepp’d in so far that, should I wade no more,/Returning were as tedious as go o’er. ” Macbeth does not have a choice of whether or not he goes into battle because he is already stained with the blood of Duncan. Macduff kills Macbeth by wounding him with spears and then cutting off his head with a sword. The prophecy from the witches comes true – Macbeth has become king – but what they did not say is whether Macbeth would be a good king. Macbeth’s actions, which were not decided by his own will but by fate, show that he is not fit to rule as a monarch.

Thus, Macbeth does become King of Scotland, as the witches foretold through their prophecy, but it was all part of his downfall, as everything Macbeth did was predestined from the time he killed Duncan until the moment Macduff killed him (directly or indirectly). Fate controlled Macbeth throughout his life and ultimately led to his death; people seem unable to avoid fate even though they can make decisions. Shakespeare uses lots of symbolism in Macbeth because it shows how powerful words are; Macbeth can change his mind when Macduff rebels against him because Macduff says “Lay on Macduff, and damn’d be him who first cries hold!.

Macbeth hears this speech in Macduff’s third line of dialogue which shows Macbeth is willing to accept Macduff’s good advice. Macbeth knows that Macduff would not say this unless he was truly frightened for his life or someone else close to him, so Macbeth changes the way he thinks about what it means to kill Macduff. However, Macbeth does exactly what he did before with Banquo because the prophecy tells him that Banquo will be important one day which makes Macbeth paranoid.

This is Macbeth actually making a decision, but it goes against what Macduff said and therefore Macbeth is still not making his own decisions. Macbeth decides to kill Macduff’s family because he is afraid of Macduff, especially after the prophecy from the witches. This is perhaps another decision made by Macbeth because if Macbeth does not kill Macduff’s family, then Macduff might rebel against him even more. In this case, Macbeth makes a poor choice that will come back to haunt him in the future; it is possible that he would have had an easy time with Macduff and Malcolm if he left them alone.

However this choice was also caused by fate because Macbeth does not know what Macduff and Malcolm will do until Macduff tells him to “Lay on Macduff, and damn’d be him who first cries hold!. ” Macbeth’s paranoia towards the prophecy is an important part of his downfall as it makes him kill those around him that he fears will challenge his power. Fate controls Macbeth because if the witches never made a prophecy about Macbeth becoming king then Duncan would still be alive and Macbeth would never have become king. If this had happened, Macbeth might have lived a long life or at least more peacefully than he did.

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William Shakespeare

Literature Notes
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Act I: Scene 1
Act I: Scene 2
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Act I: Scene 4
Act I: Scene 5
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Act II: Scene 1
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Act II: Scene 3
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Act III: Scene 1
Act III: Scene 2
Act III: Scene 3
Act III: Scene 4
Act III: Scene 5
Act III: Scene 6
Act IV: Scene 1
Act IV: Scene 2
Act IV: Scene 3
Act V: Scene 1
Act V: Scene 2
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Critical Essays Major Themes

The Fall of Man

The ancient Greek notion of tragedy concerned the fall of a great man, such as a king, from a position of superiority to a position of humility on account of his ambitious pride, or hubris . To the Greeks, such arrogance in human behavior was punishable by terrible vengeance. The tragic hero was to be pitied in his fallen plight but not necessarily forgiven: Greek tragedy frequently has a bleak outcome. Christian drama, on the other hand, always offers a ray of hope; hence, Macbeth ends with the coronation of Malcolm , a new leader who exhibits all the correct virtues for a king.

Macbeth exhibits elements that reflect the greatest Christian tragedy of all: the Fall of Man. In the Genesis story, it is the weakness of Adam, persuaded by his wife (who has in turn been seduced by the devil) which leads him to the proud assumption that he can "play God." But both stories offer room for hope: Christ will come to save mankind precisely because mankind has made the wrong choice through his own free will. In Christian terms, although Macbeth has acted tyrannically, criminally, and sinfully, he is not entirely beyond redemption in heaven.

Fortune, Fate, and Free Will

Fortune is another word for chance. The ancient view of human affairs frequently referred to the "Wheel of Fortune," according to which human life was something of a lottery. One could rise to the top of the wheel and enjoy the benefits of superiority, but only for a while. With an unpredictable swing up or down, one could equally easily crash to the base of the wheel.

Fate, on the other hand, is fixed. In a fatalistic universe, the length and outcome of one's life (destiny) is predetermined by external forces. In Macbeth, the Witches represent this influence. The play makes an important distinction: Fate may dictate what will be, but how that destiny comes about is a matter of chance (and, in a Christian world such as Macbeth's) of man's own choice or free will.

Although Macbeth is told he will become king, he is not told how to achieve the position of king: that much is up to him. We cannot blame him for becoming king (it is his Destiny), but we can blame him for the way in which he chooses to get there (by his own free will).

Kingship and Natural Order

Macbeth is set in a society in which the notion of honor to one's word and loyalty to one's superiors is absolute. At the top of this hierarchy is the king, God's representative on Earth. Other relationships also depend on loyalty: comradeship in warfare, hospitality of host towards guest, and the loyalty between husband and wife. In this play, all these basic societal relationships are perverted or broken. Lady Macbeth's domination over her husband, Macbeth's treacherous act of regicide, and his destruction of comradely and family bonds, all go against the natural order of things.

The medieval and renaissance view of the world saw a relationship between order on earth, the so-called microcosm , and order on the larger scale of the universe, or macrocosm. Thus, when Lennox and the Old Man talk of the terrifying alteration in the natural order of the universe — tempests, earthquakes, darkness at noon, and so on — these are all reflections of the breakage of the natural order that Macbeth has brought about in his own microcosmic world.

Disruption of Nature

Violent disruptions in nature — tempests, earthquakes, darkness at noon, and so on — parallel the unnatural and disruptive death of the monarch Duncan.

The medieval and renaissance view of the world saw a relationship between order on earth, the so-called microcosm, and order on the larger scale of the universe, or macrocosm. Thus, when Lennox and the Old Man talk of the terrifying alteration in the natural order of the universe (nature), these are all reflections of the breakage of the natural order that Macbeth has brought about in his own microcosmic world (society).

Many critics see the parallel between Duncan's death and disorder in nature as an affirmation of the divine right theory of kingship. As we witness in the play, Macbeth's murder of Duncan and his continued tyranny extends the disorder of the entire country.

Gender Roles

Lady Macbeth is the focus of much of the exploration of gender roles in the play. As Lady Macbeth propels her husband toward committing Duncan's murder, she indicates that she must take on masculine characteristics. Her most famous speech — located in Act I, Scene 5 — addresses this issue.

Clearly, gender is out of its traditional order. This disruption of gender roles is also presented through Lady Macbeth's usurpation of the dominate role in the Macbeth's marriage; on many occasions, she rules her husband and dictates his actions.

Reason Versus Passion

During their debates over which course of action to take, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth use different persuasive strategies. Their differences can easily be seen as part of a thematic study of gender roles. However, in truth, the difference in ways Macbeth and Lady Macbeth rationalize their actions is essential to understanding the subtle nuances of the play as a whole.

Macbeth is very rational, contemplating the consequences and implications of his actions. He recognizes the political, ethical, and religious reason why he should not commit regicide. In addition to jeopardizing his afterlife, Macbeth notes that regicide is a violation of Duncan's "double trust" that stems from Macbeth's bonds as a kinsman and as a subject.

On the other hand, Lady Macbeth has a more passionate way of examining the pros and cons of killing Duncan. She is motivated by her feelings and uses emotional arguments to persuade her husband to commit the evil act.

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[ This is an annotated list of passages related to Macbeth's struggle with fate. ]

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Essay: Macbeth – fate and free will

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Elbert Hubbard, an American Writer, once said, “Life is a compromise between fate and free will.” There is a constant struggle between what fate decides, and what the consequences of free will lead up to. Even if the end of a pathway is predetermined by fate, the way it is reached is through one’s own decisions made by free will. The consequences of these actions made in free will then determines how one comes about their destiny. In Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, the characters suffer fated deaths resulted from their actions. Fate and free will cohesively go hand in hand ultimately leading up to the deaths of Duncan, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth. The death of Duncan is determined by fate and free will because the actions of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth led to his death. When Macbeth comes across the witches, they reveal to him that he, “Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” (1.3.53), and he becomes ambitious to reach that position quickly. Throughout the play, Macbeth solely lives by the witches’ prophecies, basing his decisions off of what they say. At the time this prophecy was stated, Duncan was King of Scotland. Previously, the witches tell Macbeth that he would be Thane of Cawdor, which became true, so Macbeth believed in the accuracy of the prophecies. This persuaded Macbeth that it was in his fate that he would become King of Scotland, since it was predetermined by the witches. As it was Macbeth’s fate to become King of Scotland, it correlated that Duncan’s fate would be death, in order to fulfill the prophecy. Although it may seem that Duncan’s death was fate, Macbeth’s free will determined how he would take Duncan’s throne. After Macbeth heard his prophecy, he told Lady Macbeth his fate. She suggested that he should kill Duncan, and starts to plan the murder. Initially Macbeth was rather reluctant to Lady Macbeth’s idea of murder, however she later persuaded him into following through with the assassination. As Macbeth saw the blade, he asks, “Is this a dagger which I see before me,/ The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch/ thee” (2.1.44-46). Macbeth decides that he will murder Duncan out of his own free will. He explicitly asks for the dagger, “Come let me clutch thee” showing the desire behind his actions. Macbeth’s free will changes proportionally with his characterization, because he went from viewing murder as impure, to now committing one himself. As his values and perceptions change, Macbeth acts differently, which overall influences his free will. Fate and free will are both accountable for Duncan’s death because of the actions Macbeth took to fulfill the witches’ prophecy that he would become king. Lady Macbeth’s free will led to her negative influence on Macbeth, and eventually resulted in her fate, her death. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth’s characterization was headstrong and powerful. She serves as the main influence for Macbeth to murder Duncan, as she extensively argues against Macbeth, demanding that he must follow through with the murder. She uses his own manhood against him by stating, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And, to be more than what you were, you would / be so much more the man” (1.7.56-58). Lady Macbeth was the first to know when Macbeth had heard the prophecy of becoming King of Scotland, and was overjoyed by the news. She made sure that he would fulfill his prophecy, regardless of any circumstances. She harshly criticizes Macbeth for not wanting to commit the murder, depreciating him as being less than a so called “man.” Her argument is effective, as Macbeth successfully committed the murder. Lady Macbeth misuses her free will, as she only looks in interest of herself and Macbeth, not considering anybody else being affected by her actions. A change in her characterization occurs after Macbeth had become King of Scotland and abused his power by ordering unnecessary murders. Lady Macbeth becomes overwhelmed with guilt as she was the one who forced the impurity in Macbeth, driving her to be mentally and emotionally unstable. She has a gentlewoman to take care of her, and one day a Doctor comes to visit. He evaluates, “Unnatural deeds/ do breed unnatural troubles. Infected minds/ to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets./ More needs she the divine than the physician” (5.1.75-78). Lady Macbeth’s fate is determined by her free will because her “unnatural deeds” drove her to have an “infected mind” which is out of the Doctor’s control. Her fate is death, as the Doctor believes that there is nothing that can be done to cure her of her troubles. Lady Macbeth’s free will of previous constraint upon Macbeth has led her to feel responsible for Macbeth’s presiding actions. Macbeth kills former friends who he believes are now enemies, susceptible people, and harmless families, showing the impact of Lady Macbeth’s free will. She eventually commits suicide because the pain was unbearable. If Lady Macbeth had not been so forceful towards Macbeth killing Duncan, he would not have gone insane, and she would not have felt guilty. Fate and free will determine Lady Macbeth’s death because her guilt was oppressive causing her suicide. Macbeth’s death came from his free will to ignore his fate. The witches tell Macbeth his fate through various prophecies which change Macbeth’s characterization dramatically throughout the play. He becomes overconfident in his actions as the witches relieve his worries of anybody killing him. Macbeth begins the play as a pure and caring soldier, but eventually turns into an evil tyrant. Once he fulfilled the witches’ prophecy of becoming King of Scotland, he began to misuse his control of the country. Macbeth states, “The castle of Macduff I will surprise, / seize upon Fife, give to th’ edge o’ th’ sword / His wife, his babies, and all unfortunate souls / That trace him in his line…/ This deed I’ll do before this purpose cool” (4.1.171-175). To ensure his own safety, Macbeth decided to kill anyone that is related to Macduff. A king must put his country before himself, but we see the opposite in Macbeth’s rule. Macbeth is doing everything in his power to protect himself, rather than his country. The witches’ prophecies did not specify his rule, only that he is destined to be King of Scotland, therefore it was Macbeth’s free will that he became a tyrant. We see Macbeth approaching his fate when Macduff comes to battle. During the fight, Macbeth’s last few words were, “Before my body / I throw my warlike shield. Lay on, Macduff, / And damned be him that first cries, ‘Hold! Enough!’” (5.8.37-39). Macduff had killed Macbeth, which was Macbeth’s fate. Macbeth had severely misused his power, resulting in the retaliation of his people, leading to his own death. Fate and free will were responsible for the death of Macbeth, because his unfair ruling angered the people, leading them to avenge. Macbeth, being overconfident, was not prepared for this comeback, and was consequently defeated. Macbeth’s fate was determined by his inconsiderate previous actions, or free will, which led Macduff to murder Macbeth. Fate and free will work together interchangeably to determine the deaths of Duncan, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth. Fate is predetermined, but the way in which we reach it, is due to our free will. One’s decision will not only impact how they reach their own fate, but also other’s fate. Before making outrageous choices, one must consider the effects it may have on other people and to be mindful of everyone’s lives. Although one may not be able to change their destiny, they can still change their actions and perception to be respectful towards others. 2019-3-11-1552296886

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Fate vs. Free Will in Macbeth: A Tragic Dilemma

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