Fate Vs Free Will In Macbeth

Paulo Coelho, an award winning international novelist, once said, “I can control my destiny, but not my fate. Destiny means there are opportunities to turn right or left, but fate is a one-way street. I believe we all have the choice as to whether we fulfil our destiny, but our fate is sealed.” Fate is something predetermined and will happen no matter what one tries to do to prevent it. Many people do not know their true fate, because there are not many who can reliably tell what one's fate is. In the play, Macbeth, William Shakespeare had used the Weird Sisters as the bringers of fate. The Weird Sisters told Macbeth's fate twice during the play. They originally gave Macbeth the prophecy that he will become king, then Macbeth acted upon

No matter what choices he makes, it is still his fate and will happen regardless. The first test Macbeth had against fate was when he was pondering whether or not to act upon the fate given to him by the weird sisters, when Macbeth announces to the audience “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown/ me/ without my stir” (I.3.143-144). The situational irony is that after Macbeth stakes such a claim that he has to do nothing, the audience thinks that he will not do anything out of the ordinary. However, that is not the case, because afterwards he goes out and kills the King in order to obtain the throne. Towards the middle of the play, he starts to take action to prevent bad parts of his fate .After Macbeth hears from the witches that he is to beware Macduff, he tells a lord, Lennox, to kill Macduff’s “wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls/ that him in his line” (IV.1.174-175). Shakespeare uses dramatic irony here, because the audience knows that Macduff had left to try and help Malcom gain the throne. Therefor, he was not there to be killed in the massacre of his family. The massacre caused him to need to avenge all those Macbeth killed. Macbeth makes Macduff have a need to kill him, which led to Macbeth’s downfall. Macbeth cannot seem to prevent any aspect of his fate from occurring, and fate is something that will not change no matter how hard one

In the beginning, Banquo was given the prophecy of having his heirs being kings. Macbeth is frustrated with the idea of doing all the work to be king only for Banquo’s heirs to become King, when he later proclaims, “For them the gracious Duncan have I murdered;/ put rancors in the vessel of my peace/ Only for them” (III.1.66-68). The situational irony is that Macbeth did not have to kill Banquo then. He could have had children, and then have them marry Banquo’s children; in order for the prophecy to come true. Then Macbeth would not have done all the dirty work for someone else, but for his own family. At the end of the play, when Macbeth and Macduff start to fight, Macbeth makes one final choice: to fight fate. Macbeth realises that Macduff had gone through all of the prophecies that gave Macbeth a sense of security. He then bellows his final fight against fate when he says “Through Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,/ and thou opposed, being of no woman born,/ yet I will try the last” (V.8.30-33). Macbeth would not give into his fate and attempted to keep himself alive and keep his throne; however, this did not happen because one's fate dictates the final outcome. No matter what choice someone makes, fate is the ultimate dictator of what will end up