The Importance Of Making Decisions In Shakespeare's Macbeth

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Recommended: Macbeth’s life and character act 1

One of the biggest problems that people face, whether on a large or small scale, is making decisions. Each decision holds weight, and often reflects ones’ true character and morals. In Act 1 Scene 4 of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which the namesakes’ character is followed in his eventual quest to become king, Macbeth has an aside in which he is deciding his next plan of action, and in Act 1 Scene 4 he is discussing the same decision with Lady Macbeth. The play revolves around this decision and its consequences. Macbeth’s aside in Act 1 Scene 4 contrasts with his exchange with Lady Macbeth in Act 1 Scene 7, showing his inner struggles throughout the play and decides his true nature.

To start, the play begins with Macbeth meeting the three witches, …show more content…

Macbeth does not necessarily have to kill King Duncan. In fact, per earlier lines, Macbeth believes the witches’ prophecy without question. He makes a rash decision at the very beginning by automatically taking their words as truth. Believing information that may be false and without evidence is often the start of faulty decision-making. They did not heed him to take his own action. If he truly believed them he would not have to do anything for their prophecy to take its course, he would have done nothing. The stress of the prophecy was too heavy on Macbeth for him to wait for it to come true of its own accord. To believe their prophecy is to believe it is fate, so he could have let fate take its course instead of taking it into his own …show more content…

In truth, Lady Macbeth does not know about the prophecy until after Macbeth seems to make his decision on his own. Lady Macbeth first receives Macbeth’s letter informing of the witches at the beginning of Act I Scene 5. The scene continues to show Lady Macbeth’s desires regarding the prophecy, with her stating in line 61 and 62, “O, never/Shall sun that morrow see!” (1872). Lady Macbeth barely wavers from the decision to kill King Duncan to obtain the throne, going so far as to plead for her to be made more like a man to have a lack of remorse towards the deed. Therefore, before Macbeth and Lady Macbeth confer after his journey, both had resolved to murder the

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