Life is like a game of cards. The hand you're dealt is determinism; the way you play it is free will” (Jawaharlal Nehru). At the end of the day, acting on free will are choices that can lead to grave consequences. Ultimately, Macbeth’s decisions and choices are controlled by his own free will through the play. Firstly, when the witches reveal prophecies to Macbeth, followed by Lady Macbeth’s influence on him and lastly the crimes he commits without rhyme or reasoning. All these aspects are ways Macbeth uses his own free will. To begin with, when Macbeth encounters the witches for the first time, he is given prophecies. The third witch says “All hail, Macbeth, the future king” (I, III, 51). Macbeth now knows his possibilities and instead of letting what he hears come with fate, he makes plans on how to make sure he becomes king quicker, therefore acting on free will. Macbeth then has a …show more content…
Banquo getting killed is a great example of this. Macbeth is told Banquo’s descendants will be kings, even though he himself will not be. This tells Macbeth that Banquo himself is not a large threat, whereas Fleance may be the bigger issue. It is also known the witches speak in half truths and riddles, so these descendants could be past Macbeth's time. Macbeth says “To be king is nothing if I’m not safe as king. I'm very afraid of the Banquo” (III, I, 49). He has no reason to fear Banquo, as he will not be king. His own mind created a reason to kill Banquo and this is shown as he has to lie to the two murderers for reasoning to have him killed. Another crime Macbeth commits is killing Macduff’s family. Macbeth says “I’ll raid his castle, seize the town of Fife, and kill his wife and his children” (IV, I, 151-153). This is probably the strongest point of free will from Macbeth as Macduff's family has no impact on the play. He simply wants to hurt Macduff and prove his manhood even
Free will is defined as the power of acting without the constraint of necessity or fate. It is the ability to act at one’s own discretion. What this means is that there is no set destiny; only a person’s own decisions can impact the outcome of their life. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, free will plays a very substantial and powerful role. In 11th century Scotland, three witches give a prophecy to Macbeth, a general in King Duncan’s army, that he will one day become King himself. They also give a prophecy to Macbeth’s best friend, Banquo, telling him that his descendants will be Kings. Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, hatch a plan to commit regicide in order to speed up the process. After their father is found dead, the King’s sons flee to England and Ireland and unknowingly casting the blame upon them. Macbeth is crowned King, and the prophecy has been fulfilled. Macbeth’s reign as King is one of violence and destruction, and he is overcome with guilt. He kills a lord named Macduff’s family because he finds out he has gone to England to help one of the sons. Macduff comes back to Scotland and slays Macbeth, and King Duncan’s eldest son becomes King. Some might argue that Macbeth was a victim of fate and circumstance, but it was of his own free will that he decided to murder King Duncan, and go on a reign of terror as King. Shakespeare’s Macbeth establishes that one’s free will can impact their decision-making abilities, ambition and paranoia. Free will is a concept that not everyone accepts, but something that Macbeth takes head on.
As Macbeth becomes obsessed with the idea of power, his mindset is consumed with fearlessness and he states “what need I fear of thee?” (Document D). This feeling of invincibility is created by the witches “when the witches bring the tidings of Macbeth's elevation to Thane of Cawdor” and “his body seems to act independently of his will” (Cohen). Although the witches did have partial control over the thoughts that preceded Macbeth’s detrimental actions, the final decisions were ultimately controlled by Macbeth
To begin, we look at the first prediction of the witches. They call him by the names of ?Thane of Glamis?, which he already is, ?Thane of Cawdor? (a title he does not know he has been given), and "King hereafter." As a result, the first two things the witches tell him aren?t prophesies because they have already happened. Look at the third and most important prophecy. The witches tell Macbeth that he will become ?King Hereafter?, there?s knowledge that this actually happened. ?If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.? (1 3) Did it happen because of fate or did Macbeth make it happen? The witches tempted Macbeth to kill the King, however, it was his own ambition that led him to do that terrible thing. Macbeth, even though he was uneasy, he chose to kill King Duncan and ascend to the throne of Scotland. ?Nothing is
Throughout the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth continuously makes bad choices and the consequences of these decisions catch up to Macbeth and result in his mental deterioration, however with Macbeth’s almost infant feel for ambition this makes him susceptible to manipulation, which then grows into an insatiable appetite for power. The acts of this, with the manipulation from outsiders, causes his blind ambition, his false sense of security and then finally his guilt, which all contribute to his derangement. Some will argue that all the choices made by Macbeth were continuously his own, that he had these opportunities as a man to put his foot down and say no, and be able to draw the line where things should come to an end, the fault of a mental deterioration was not there, that from the beginning Macbeth was an evil man who had a twisted way of achieving things. Macbeth’s ambition is to remain king for as long as possible, and he will kill anybody who stops this from happening. Macbeth feels as if he was given a childless rule, and that his legacy will not continue on in fear his rule will be taken away by someone outside his family.
Throughout the story of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth acts in a much despised manner: he becomes a murderer and later, when king of Scotland, a tyrant. Many who have read or seen the play are left wondering how a man’s whole approach to life can change; how Macbeth turned from the hero whom all adored, to the tyrant who was hated and ended up a lone man, fighting for his life.
In the play The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the character Macbeth acts on free will as opposed to fate. The definition of free will is having the ability to make a choice; including the possession of options, logical reasoning for choosing each option, as well as understanding the consequences of each decision. Macbeth obeys all the criteria, using “fate” as an excuse to act like a murder-crazy lunatic, ultimately resulting in his demise.
"One feels," says W.C. Curry, "that in proportion as the good in him diminishes, his liberty of free choice is determined more and more by evil inclination and that he cannot choose the better course. Hence we speak of destiny or fate, as if it were some external force or moral order, compelling him against his will to certain destruction." Most readers have felt that after the initial crime there is something compulsive in Macbeth's murders; and at the end, for all his "valiant fury," he is certainly not a free agent. He is like a bear tied to a stake, he says; but it is not only the besieging army that hems him in; he is imprisoned in the world he has made. (102)
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the protagonist, Macbeth, murders the king of Scotland and eventually murders several other people. In the end, Macbeth meets his tragic fate of being killed by the nobleman Macduff. Throughout the play, Macbeth makes decisions that affect his fate, but other characters manipulate his choices and his actions. Early in the play Macbeth, Macbeth has control over his actions, but due to the influence of other characters and his subsequent insanity, by the end of the play, Macbeth has no control over his fate.
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.
A controversial question debated by many is, “Can human beings really have the freedom to do as we wish? Or do people influence our so called ‘free will’, to the extant where we don’t have a choice? ” This question is raised in Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare in 1606, a play that deals with key themes such as good versus evil and power. I will be talking about how the witches aren’t the most powerful characters in the play, and aren’t the catalyst to all of Macbeth’s crimes by using the witches, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth himself. It took a combination of the witches, Lady Macbeth and himself for Macbeth to commit these crimes.
When reading William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, it seems that Macbeth was predestined to do the terrible deeds that he did. However, there is also a valid argument that Macbeth exercised his free will and chose to do those things on his own. This discussion leads into many different topics, but it relates most to spirituality. The concept of free will and how it relates to Macbeth and our present lives yields a relevant and interesting topic for further discussion.
Fate and free will, the beliefs that humans are either mere playthings to the universe or are in full control of their destinies. The tragic play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, has the ideas of fate and free will present throughout. The play opens on eleventh century Scotland, where the main character, Macbeth, meets with three witches who tell him that he is fated to become king. Macbeth decides to leave out chance, take matters into his own hands, and kill King Duncan. He soon becomes paranoid and sends orders to kill those he believes are a threat to his power. Although Macbeth was fated to become king, his downfall was caused by his own free will on the account of his choices to put faith in the witches, kill King Duncan, and kill the family of Macduff.
In the tragedy “Macbeth,” written by William Shakespeare, Macbeths free will is shown as he tries to take what is his. “Macbeth” is about a Scottish troop (Macbeth) and his friend Banquo. Macbeth and Banquo meet three witches whom tell them about a prophecy that involves Macbeth and Banquo’s son. One of the prophecies was that Macbeth would become king. The prophecy makes Macbeth’s mind corrupted making him pursue dark actions to overthrow King Duncan. Macbeth’s free will is exhibited by the way he has the inspiration to control what he does throughout the tragedy. People may say that it is fate because the prophecy states that Macbeth will be king, but it also states that Banquo’s sons will be kings in
Macbeth’s blind ambition leads him to surrender to his dark desires that taunt him throughout the play. Macbeth is frequently tempted to result to the wrongful methods that seem to roam inside of him. In the beginning however Macbeth tends to ignore these desires and depends on chance. He declares “if chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir” (Shakespeare, act 1, scene 3, 143-144). This declaration by Macbeth shows his initial stand, which is reliant on fate and sin free. Yet as Macbeth’s character develops throughout the play, he moves farther from his dependence on chance and closer to his darker desires. Eventually his blind ambition to become king overp...
In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth’s destiny is determined by the choices he makes. The first hint to the reader of Macbeth’s choices comes as a warning from Banquo to Macbeth about believing the witches, or Weird Sisters. Once Macbeth starts to believe the witches, this belief facilitates his decisions to take certain actions. Macbeth’s choice to believe the witches also gives them control over him, which further illustrates how Macbeth’s destiny is fated by his choice to believe them. Throughout the play Macbeth has opportunities to stop believing in the witches, thereby choosing actions that might avoid a harmful fate. It is Macbeth’s free choice to believe the witches or not, and it is this choice and his resulting actions that leads to his fate.