Fate In Macbeth Essay

Fate doesn’t control the knife in a murderer’s hand, wavering above the throat of their next victim. Just as fate doesn’t control the amount of blood that follows. Nor does fate take hold of one’s mind when it is twisting on the side of evil and malice. While fate may have some hold on some actions, it often doesn’t make up for most of the crimes done by most people. It is the same in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth had choices, even with the witches foretelling his fortune and his doom, and he chose every action, crime, and path he took. Fate had nothing to do with Macbeth’s actions, and Macbeth can be held accountable for all his actions since he could clearly determine between both sides in his choices, he understood the consequences, and

Although this may seem unrelated to fate, it gives an insight to the idea that he had a decision to ignore the witches’ prophecy. By thinking that he was tricked with a ruse from the witches, Macbeth determines that he could’ve gone down a different path, thus bringing up the conclusion that he wasn’t held down by fate. Macbeth announces that “I pull in resolution and begin to doubt th’ equivocation of the fiend,...” (285) which is a reference to his unraveling belief that the witches lied to him. Macbeth proves to himself and others that he was not tied down by fate, for, he himself begins to see that the witches deceived him, and, since it was deception instead of a prophecy, Macbeth had the option of taking the direction of murder and betrayal, or not. Feeling tricked instead of disappointed in one’s self for not fulfilling the prophecy is a clear indicator that it was his mistake in believing the prophecy that directed his immoral choices and led to his ultimate decline and destruction. In this, there is a representative idea not to trust everything someone, no matter how credible or believable, says or