Free Choice In Shakespeare's Macbeth, The Fateful Man

Macbeth, the Fateful Man Fate, is an existence of life that determines the path someone will take throughout their course. Some individuals choose to believe in this while others believe it is ridiculous to let an ideology determine how one’s life will be. In Macbeth, a play written by William Shakespeare, fate plays a key role in the life of several characters. One in particular, is Macbeth. Later in his life he is told the prophecies of his future by three evil sisters, the three witches. When Macbeth decides to believe in these prophecies, he allows fate to determine the rest of his life as he goes on to make multiple decisions that he would not have made before hearing of his prophecies. Shakespeare uses fate in his play to display that

The first occurrence of fate becoming Macbeth’s life is when he is told his three prophecies from the witches. The evil sisters place on him a great power when they say, “All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis! All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor! All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (Shakespeare, 1.3. 51-53). Macbeth is very excited to hear this prophecy because he begins to imagine all the power he could have. The only problem is that for the prophecy to be true, he must kill the king. The King who happens to be his cousin, Duncan. He is shocked to hear the witches say that he will take the “Thane of Cawdor” as he responds in an uncertain way, “By Finel’s death I know I am the Thane of Glamis. But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives, a prosperous gentlemen…”(Shakespeare, 1.3.71-73). Macbeth does not know whether he should accept this prophecy for all other reasons or if he should continue to struggle with hearing that he is meant to kill a member of his own family. He struggles with this until Lady Macbeth plays with his mind. She begins to

He allows himself to become some sort of monster and ultimately lose control. Banquo says of Macbeth that “He seems rapt withal” (Shakespeare, 1.3.57). The key word in Banquo’s speaking is, “rapt” which means to be so filled intensity and pleasurable emotions that you allow those feelings and emotions to take you over. The intensity that he feels, comes right after he kills Duncan and he begins to fall too deep in love with that feeling pushing him to continue to kill. Macbeth continues to become “rapt” due to Lady Macbeth as well because she continues to make him feel weak. She once again is knowledgeable of the fact that he will do anything it takes to win her over and continue to satisfy her. Macbeth’s second occurrence of weakness is when Lady Macbeth says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man” (Shakespeare, 1.7.56). When Macbeth is told this, his thought process is that the only way he can have strong masculinity is if he commits this terrible act. Lady Macbeth pushes her husband so far with insults that he begins to feel overwhelmed with how she feels about him. He wants to be more of a masculine figure than what he already is so that he may feel loved by his wife. This leads him into going onto committing more and more acts that he would not have gone on with in his past. Another occurrence where Macbeth is seen losing his control and continuing