The Role of Fate in Macbeth

From the first scene of the play, the reader immediately gets a glimpse of the deception meshed into Macbeth’s world. The quote “Fair is foul and foul is fair” is a commonly used by the three witches, spoken in their equivocal language. This same language of vagueness is used when the witches encounter Macbeth and Banquo on the

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, changes happen. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a well liked and good man of Scotland, who turns into an evil, cold hearted, murderer by the end. His rewards and punishments could have been predetermined by fate, but the actions he took to get to get those rewards and punishments were determined by Macbeth’s free will. In Macbeth, he attempts to control the future and hide the past by listening to other people and committing multiple murders of innocent people.

The first idea of “Fate” is brought about with the line from the Weird Sisters “First Witch- “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, thane of Glamis!” Second Witch-“ All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!” Third Witch- “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter! (1.3.6). ” To Macbeth this seemed like a two-part prophecy of things to come, although in actuality he had

Throughout life, many of us will find ourselves in some of the worst situations that leave us wondering who’s to blame. The truth is that the misfortunes that befall us are due to our own actions and sometimes due to fate or bad luck. Fate is one person's destiny and it can not be understood by simple mortals but a greater power beyond human comprehension. Fate is so powerful that it can control a person's outcome on life before it happens. Many people tend to become victims of fate in which they catch a glimpse of what their future is going to look like, but do not totally take hold of the outcome. Macbeth can not fully realize the possible outcome of his fate because he is human, and therefore is a victim to his power driven

A deadly combination of ambition and guilt poisons both Macbeth and his wife and leads to their deaths in the end. Ruined by her desire for power, Lady Macbeth’s descent into madness is more vivid and guilt seems to affect her more than her husband, even though he is responsible for more crimes. Her request to the spirits to “unsex [her] here,/ And fill [her], from the crown to the toe, top-full/ Of direst cruelty!” is contrasted as the more guilty she feels, the more weak and sensitive she become, a polar opposite of her usual masculine and bold self (1.5.44-46). As a result, she is unable to cope with the guilt and meets her ultimate demise by taking her life. This has an immediate effect on Macbeth: the almost always apparent tension of ambition and guilt disappears. He does not seem interested in living and is ready to face death in a manner more relatable to his former self rather than the murderer he has become. Moreover, Macbeth’s final remark is “Arm, arm, and out!”,

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there is a question as to whether or not Macbeth is driven by fate or free will. The three weird sisters approach Macbeth with prophecies that will all come true in the end. It would appear that Macbeth is just following destiny at first. However, Macbeth always had a choice throughout the play to choose his own fate. Macbeth journeyed to his murderous doom through his own free choice.

Decisions you make can lead to the  death of innocent people. In William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, examines the elements of fate and free will by the actions of others lead to the bloodshed of the innocent people in the play such as Banquo, Duncan and Lady Macduff and her child. Consequently even though Macduff's actions are for the greater good to stopping Macbeth,  it comes at the ultimate cost of the life of his wife and child.

Fate is one person's destiny, it cannot be understood by mere mortals but a greater power beyond human comprehension. Fate is so powerful that it controls a person's outcome on life before it happens. Many people become victims of fate in which they catch a glimpse of what their future is going to look like, but do not totally grasp the outcome. Macbeth cannot fully comprehend the possible outcome of his fate because he is mortal, and therefore is a victim to his power driven quest and his ultimate fate. Many have been said to agree with this statement. For example, as stated in Shakespeare A to Z, "The Witches are an enactment of the irrational. The supernatural world if terrifying because it is beyond human control, and in the play it is

Fate is a very tricky concept. Does it control our actions and decisions or even how we live our lives? In life you have two choices, to do the right thing or to do the wrong thing. That is what decides a person’s actions and what kind of life a person lives. Fate can give people different faces, it can change everything about that person. It can transform people into monsters or make them see their actions and try to become a different, better person. Everyone is always trying to change their fate so that it will work out for them in the end. Although most people would like to believe that fate is responsible for the bad things in their life, that is not always the case. A person creates their own destiny and decides their own fate, and that all depends on what decisions and actions we make in our life to decide whether we will have a good life or a bad life.

Here it is said by the captain that Macbeth should have died in battle but that he was stronger (more ambitious) than his fate. Macbeth has no one to blame but himself. The captain does also call Macbeth “damned quarry” and this time he escapes fate but the “rebel’s whore” will get him in the end.

Fate always plays a dangerously important role in the lives of men, and knowing their destinies can make people do things that may be good or bad. Although Macbeth was a good general, fighting with the interest of protecting his country from invaders, his destiny forbade it and he was changed into cold, heartless tyrant. Even when he tried to resist his fate, the very thing he did, was what caused his death in the end. This illustrates the unsurmountable power of fate and the path set out for us. We can’t avoid it, and no matter what we do , we are always drawn back to what was meant to be. Often, this is what causes people to do unnatural (bad) things out of desperation.

Yet after his encounter with the witches, his mind was going back and forth trying to figure out how he should act upon the prophecy of becoming king! It was by then that the idea of fate had been planted into his head, and with such good title to come with it, why wouldn’t he want to believe his ‘fate’? Something that I found very interesting about the witches was that looking closely at line 24-25 when one of the witches says, "Though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed." From what I seemed to understand, these lines seemed to really show the limitations to the witches’ powers, because they were basically saying that they could only make life rough for the clueless captain, but they could not kill him. I think that this is really important to all the people who thought that the witches had ‘written out’ Macbeth’s fate because in the same way as the previous stated scene they can tempt Macbeth with predictions about his future, but they cannot make him choose evil. Meaning that in this scene, one of the conflicts is obviously fate vs. free will! All the witches really did was find a way of stirring up evil, by tempting Macbeth into choosing to opt for evil instead of good. “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” (Act 1. Scene iii. Line 10). Here, Macbeth seems content to leave his future to "chance." If "chance" will have

Since the beginning of time, men have tried to know there fate and their purpose in this world. By creating omnipotent forces, they were able to explain that everything was predestined, and that it was “God’s will” or “the way the world wanted it”. Not everyone believes this and a huge dilemma between fate and will exists, as we see in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Macbeth is a Scottish lord who is given many prophecies by three witches, the first time he is told he will be thane of Cawdor and then king of Scotland. When Macbeth is given the title of thane of Cawdor he starts to believe that the witches’ predictions might be true. As a result he believes that the possibility of being king exists and this idea changes the way

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, a witch's prophecy leads the protagonist, Macbeth, to murder his former commander and beloved king, Duncan, so that he himself can replace him as the new king of Scotland. Throughout the play Macbeth wrestles with his identity as a soldier and the fact that his killing is no longer justified, unlike when he was in battle. The consequences of his actions and the guilt that comes with these consequences is what lead Macbeth into a horrific cycle of violence, which leads to bloodshed, and then inevitably ends with his insanity. Through images of violence, bloodshed and insanity Shakespeare is able to show Macbeth’s loss of identity as soldier and his transition from a warrior to a ruler.

He cannot even bear to look back upon it; “I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on't again I dare not.” This gives us an understanding of how he is only human and interestingly gives the audience a sense of sympathy.