Fate In Macbeth Essay

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Throughout many of Shakespeare’s famous works dark tragedies occur as often as his crafty method of foreshadowing. In Macbeth, the tragedy that occurs causes the reader to frequently question the idea of fate. The Three Weird Sisters prophesy a line of events that affect Scotland and many of its citizens throughout the rest of the play. While reading Macbeth, there is a theme in the form of a question that becomes very palpable: does fate control our destinies or do we; did the witches truly cause the tragedy or did they only plant a seed that Macbeth allowed to grow? Macbeth is proof that fate will never be the controller of our destinies, rather we are. Fate is a silly idea that is craftily displayed so that the reader must think about the story they are reading. In Act I, Captain shares his opinion of fate and its grasp on Macbeth. “And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,/ Showed like a rebel’s whore: but all’s too weak:/ For brave Macbeth- well he deserves that name-/ Disdaining fortune, with his brandished steel,/ Which smoked with bloody execution.” (Act I, Scene ii) In these lines, Captain is basically …show more content…

The Three Weird Sisters start the tragedy with their famous lines, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!” “All Hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!” “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter,” (Act I, Scene iii), but they never truly do anything wrong. They do some witch-like prophesying and Macbeth’s inevitable human ways begin to arise. Macbeth never had to kill or cunningly devise evil plans, if he truly believed the witches had correctly prophesied his future; all he would have to do is sit back and wait for the prophesy to come true. Human greed is the strongest cause for betrayal and evil

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