Throughout many of Shakespeare's plays and tragedies, he uses philosophical views of fatalism. In one of his plays, ¬Macbeth, the protagonist tried to achieve something he was not meant to obtain at the time being, thus leading to his horrid fate. Since he altered the balance of nature, Macbeth could not change his destiny. Fatalism is a philosophical view that emphasizes the servitude of events and actions to fate. The main idea of fatalism revolves around the belief that we humans, are powerless to do anything that we actually want to do, including the fact that man has no power to override the future along with his own actions. According to Daniel Dennett, "Fatalism is the rather mystical and superstitious view that at certain checkpoints in our lives, we will necessarily find ourselves in particular circumstances (the circumstances 'fate' has decreed) no matter what the intervening vagaries of our personal trajectoriesIt is widely agreed that this sort of fatalism has absolutely nothing to recommend it." The teleology of fatalism is particularly clear when fatalism takes the form of "destiny". A fatalist believes that he cannot do anything about the future. He thinks that it is not up to him what is going to happen next year, tomorrow, or maybe even the very next moment. There are various ways in which a man might get to thinking in this fatalistic way about the future, but they would be most likely to result from ideas derived from theology. For example, if God is really the almighty and all powerful creator, then, one might suppose, that perhaps He has already arranged for everything to happen just as it is going to happen, and that there is nothing left for anyone to do anything about it. That is basically what fatalism itself refers to. If something is meant to be, it will be, there is no way in changing it. .
One of the most well-known tragedies, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, illustrates themes such as ambition, deception, treachery, and fate.
