Macbeth Fate Vs Free Will Essay

One major theme in the play “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare is fate versus free will. The difference between fate and free will is one decides your future, and one is your full consent/knowledge used when making a decision. Macbeth’s decisions are in his mind his fate and what he is destined to do, but doesn’t he know that his decisions are free will? When the witches reveal Macbeth’s prophecy to him, they reveal a destiny that cannot be avoided. It is called a prophecy for a reason because it tells the future. All the witches told Macbeth was that he would become thane of cawdor, and eventually king. They did not say how he would become king. Macbeth takes this way out of context and starts to put things in his own hands. Fate is a situation that is bound to come true in the future. Free will is a decision made by

After the witches told Macbeth his prophecy, his ambition and greed got the best of him. In a soliloquy Macbeth says, “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’ other-” (1.7.25-28). Macbeth admits to feeling a drive, or need to become king, which prompts his free will decision to kill duncan. The witches did not use any “magical powers” to cause Macbeth to feel this way. It is his own instinct of needing to be so powerful that eats him up inside and causes him to choose murder. In the end of Act 1, after Macbeth made his decision to kill Duncan, he leaves us with these words, “I am settled and bend up Each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and make the time with fairest show. False fate must hide what the false heart doth know.” (1.7.91-96) After letting his anger and ambition consume him, Macbeth says he is determined to kill Duncan. He and Lady Macbeth will perform the deed, and move on with their lives acting as if they are unaware of the problem they have just