In Shakespeare's Macbeth a question arises about whether Macbeth is a puppet controlled by supernatural forces, fate, or if Macbeth is making his own decisions, forming his own life, free will. In the beginning the three witches make predictions to Macbeth. Some of the predictions begin to come true as if it were fate that they happened. The question is whether or not these predictions were truly fate for them to occur or if Macbeth was influenced bye outside forces, but caused these events to occur by his own free will.
In Act I Macbeth and Banquo come across the three witches on the heath. The witches make three predictions to Macbeth and Banquo; Macbeth will be the Thane of Cawdor, he will become king, Banquo's sons will also become king and that Banquo will not become king. Later on in that same scene Ross and Angus tell Macbeth that he is now the Thane of Cawdor. Upon receiving this news Macbeth remembers the predictions the three witches had made:.
Macbeth. Present fears are less that horrible imaginings, (I,vii,138).
Macbeth begins to become fearful that he may have to do something horrible in order to take over King Duncan's throne. He hopes that if does not come to that, but instead that he becomes king by "chance".
The predictions of the three witches begin to start coming true. Macbeth believes it is fate. He believes that he is just a mere actor in the midst of everything, a player on a stage: .
Macbeth. Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is near no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sand and fory signifying nature, (V,v,24-25).
Macbeth believes that everything is he is doing is suppose to happen. When he is about to kill King Duncan a dagger is there and he says it must be fate.
The witches" predictions greatly influence Macbeth. Even though these predictions influence him, Macbeth des everything by his own freewill.
MACBETH - FATE VS. FREEWILL Throughout Macbeth, Macbeth makes many key decisions that impact on his destiny in the play. ... The fate of Macbeth is first discussed upon Macbeth's first meeting with the three witches. ... Was it fate that Macbeth was named thane of Cawdor or just co-incidence. ... The last encounter of fate we are going to discuss today is the last scene when Macbeth gives into his fate. ...
From what a lot of readers can agitate about the book is, if Macbeth's actions were fate or freewill for all the actions that he achieved. We could compare fate to freewill by the actions a character chooses to achieve in the play. If we observe Macbeth in his freewill side, the Witches prompted him by their comments and that is what Macbeth followed. We could compare this argument to one of the stories in the bible when Satan (Serpent) told Eve to tempt Adam to eat the forbidden fruit and that was her own freewill to tempt Adam, not fate. ... Nothing forced him, not even fate, to...
