Free Will In Macbeth

In Greek mythology, the Moirai are goddesses believed to control the lives human beings the thread of life. Clotho spins the thread, bringing life, Lachesis measures it, giving each person their allotted time on Earth, and Atropos cuts the thread, choosing the manner and day of their death. These goddesses are commonly know as the Three Fates. Macbeth by William Shakespeare provokes the age old question of whether human beings are controlled by fate or if we have some semblance of free will. Shakespeare implies that fate is a ruling force in our lives through his character, Macbeth, who is manipulated by outside forces, suggesting fate is controlling the majority of his actions. The witches make their entrance into Macbeth’s life through

The Sisters proclaim, “FIRST WITCH: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH: All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (I.iii.51-53).Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan is the causal effect behind all of the main events in the play. The stem of this decision comes from this initial prophecy because this is where Macbeth initially gets the idea that he could become king. Before this prophecy, he was a loyal thane under King Duncan’s rule, but the witches cause him to doubt that loyalty. Macbeth isn’t the only person the witches have manipulated. As witches gather for a third time, the first witch tells the rest a story of a woman who annoyed her. She says, “A sailor’s wife had chestnuts in her lap and munched and munched and munched. ‘Give me,’ quoth I. ‘Aroint thee, witch,’ the rump-fred runnion cries. Her husband’s to Aleppo gone, master o’ th’ Tiger; but in a sieve I’ll thither sail, and like a rat without a tail, I’ll do, I’ll do, and I’ll do.” (I.iii.4-11). The witches are seen messing with humans and

The witches feed into the fears of Macbeth through this apparition. He was already suspicious of Macduff, but this revelation causes him to want to act upon these fears through violent means. This in turn causes Macbeth to be angry when Macduff has already escaped to England, which prompts the decision to kill his entire family. Hecate ordered the witches to create these apparitions in order to trick Macbeth. In this case, Macbeth is tricked into aggression. That aggression has grave consequences for Macbeth. Macduff went to England to find Malcolm and convince him to fight for Scotland’s freedom from Macbeth. After a long conversation, his cousin, Ross, comes by to inform him of his family’s death at the hands of Macbeth. Macduff then decides, “ Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself. Within my sword’s length set him.” The witches and Hecate’s plan for Macbeth was to trick him using the apparitions, which lead to the demise of Macduff’s wife and children. If the witches had never given Macbeth the apparitions, he would have never come to the conclusion to kill Macduff or his family, and Macduff would never have the motivation to kill Macbeth himself. Macduff had originally intended just to aid in overthrowing Macbeth, but because of his actions against his family, which were prompted by the apparitions, he decides to personally take action. It is later revealed that Macduff was not born