Consequences Of Free Will In Macbeth

The Consequences of Free Will

In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, fate and free will play a large part throughout the story. Macbeth has to make difficult choices that impact how everything turns out in the end. The witches’ predictions, guilt, and Macbeth’s actions based on the predictions cause events that could happen in the story to change when they take matters into their own hands.

Throughout the story, the three witches made predictions that change the direction the story goes. They guide Macbeth and influence the decisions he makes along the way. In the beginning of the story, the witches’ predictions are truthful, but they still left Macbeth confused on how he would achieve the things that the witches have described. The second witch says, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!”(1.3.49).

King Duncan is already Thane of Cawdor, so it makes Macbeth think that he has to do something to make the prediction come true. Later in the story, the witches make more predictions for Macbeth, but these predictions are used to mess with Macbeth’s head. The second apparition that the witches’ summon says, “Be bloody, bold, and resolute; laugh to scorn

In the beginning of the story, he is a brave, courageous person who people respect, but the witches’ first predictions influence him in a negative way that lead him to kill King Duncan. Macbeth feels guilty before he even commits the crime because of his wife. “I have given suck, and know / How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me; / I would, while it was smiling in my face, / Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums / and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you / Have done to this.” (1.7.55-60). Lady Macbeth makes Macbeth feel guilty by saying that she would willingly kill a baby for him if the action would help in any way. This causes Macbeth to follow through with his wife’s plan to murder