ipl-logo

What Is Free Will In Macbeth

882 Words4 Pages

Ethan Smith Mr. Flanagan College Prep Literature 19 September 2015 Free Will in Macbeth In the play Macbeth by Shakespeare free will determines the outcome of the events. Free will is having the ability to make your own decisions. Macbeth shows free will by deciding to interfere with the witches prophecy for him. Macbeth makes important decisions when the witches present him with the apparitions. Macbeth's ability to make his own decisions and human nature eventually lead to his death. At the beginning of the play Macbeth says, "the prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o'erleap. For in my way it lies"(1.4.55-57). From this quote Macbeth shows that he is thinking about interfering with the witches …show more content…

At this moment in the play Macbeth thinks that the choices he makes will not effect the witches prophecy for him. After making this statement Macbeth thinks about killing the current king Duncan. However, during this time Macbeth is conflicted because he does not think he has a good reason to kill the king. "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition. Which oer' leaps itself and falls on the other" (1.7.25-28). Here Macbeth shows his willingness to do anything to gain power. He admits that even though he doesn't have a good reason to kill Duncan he still wants to. Macbeth shows his free will by saying, "I am settled, and bend up each corporal agent to this terrible feat. Away, and mock the time with fairest show: False face must hide what the false heart doth know"(1.7.90-93). This shows that Macbeth is fully committed to killing Duncan. By making the decision to kill Duncan Macbeth is speeding up the witches prophecy. This decision leads to Macbeth being crowned …show more content…

Humans naturally are a little selfish and greedy. It is natural for people to do what is best for them. Macbeth is greedy, power hungry, determined, and ambitious. He was already Thane of Glamis, but once the witches told him that he would be king he became obsessed with power. Macbeth was motivated to make his decisions by jealousy, greed, and selfishness. All humans express these qualities to some degree, but Macbeth let them completely control him. Once Macbeth became king he was paranoid because he did not want to lose all the power he had just gained. Macbeth's feelings caused him to make bad decisions that ended up harming him in the

Show More
Related
803 Words | 4 Pages

Almost everybody wants to have a lot of power, but when a person gets told that they are going to be something they want to make that something come by even faster so that they do not have to wait. In the story Macbeth by Shakespeare it shows how two men will achieve their destinies, but one of them is told that he will be king and the other is told that his descendants will be king. It shows how one man will do anything just cause he wants him and his wife to be king and queen, plus they will not let fate make them king and queen they will make themselves do that. Early on in the play Macbeth starts off as an honest, honorable, loyal subject of the king, but towards the end of Act one he changes to greedy and dishonorable. In this quote it says, “New honors come upon him, Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mold But with the aid of use”(Act 1 Scene 3 Page 6 Lines 149-151 Banquo).

Read More
854 Words | 4 Pages

The question “ How much of what happens in our lives do we actually control?” is present throughout the story Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, and the story of Chris McCandless, named Into the Wild. Both stories demonstrate this theme through the choices the main characters make in their lives, Macbeth was told his prophecy from the witches, which set him on his path towards his chosen destiny. In the case of Chris McCandless, he chose to live a very minimal life, which to led the camping trip that caused his death. The choices that these two people made answer the question of “How much in our lives do we actually control?”.

Read More
714 Words | 3 Pages

Macbeth starts talking to himself and explains why and why not to kill the king. He says, “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed” (1.7.). Macbeth is saying here that he is Duncan’s Kingsman, and his job is to protect him. Macbeth also explains that as his host, Who should against his murderer shut the door,Not bear the knife myself” (1.7.). The Thane of Glamis and Cawdor explains that he should be the one who should protect Duncan from death, and not be the one who kills him.

Read More
1100 Words | 5 Pages

In Macbeth, while contemplating whether or not he should kill Duncan, Macbeth says. “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / And falls on the other”(i.vii.25-28). Macbeth is saying that he has ambition to kill Duncan, but there is no good reason to except for him to gain power. At this point, Macbeth has little power, only ruling his own homeland, so when he does kill Duncan later in the story, he is able to keep his morals intact. He is doing something that, in his mind, he needs to do.

Read More
1113 Words | 5 Pages

The fact that Macbeth believes the witches’ prophecies are not evil nor good foreshadows how he will go on to kill any other person standing in his way to more power. His ambition blinds his mind to make him even think about ruthlessly committing a murder. This forceful way of gaining power will only lead Macbeth to become a “tyrant” in Scotland and his “fantastical” desires of killing Duncan and receiving the crown will lead Scotland to failure. Under Macbeth’s rule, Scotland seems to be in a terrible condition. With distrust among the people, there is tension all within the country, as Macbeth’s totalitarian regime had rendered the prosperity of Scotland.

Read More
770 Words | 4 Pages

Macbeth Free will is the idea that someone can make whatever decision they want to even though they have had outside influences. In the story, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, many characters struggle to keep their free will because the have so many outside experiences and influences affecting their lives. In this story, the characters that keep their free will, and are influenced by the outside world are usually women. The men usually don 't keep their free will in this case. Characters like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are good examples on how gender plays a role on people having free will or not.

Read More
1366 Words | 6 Pages

(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.

Read More
1006 Words | 5 Pages

This fate and option of free will, is seen throughout the play yet shows itself prominent in Macbeth. With a strong presence throughout the book fate and free will finds its way in every aspect of the story. The first depiction of fate and free will in the play is the interaction between the witches and Macbeth. This instance is the start of the paradoxical path the story follows. The witches tell Macbeth his fate is to be king and that no man born of woman will be able to harm his life.

Read More
1020 Words | 5 Pages

Macbeth made the choices by his own,he wasn’t forced or fated to make any of the choices he made. He killed King Duncan and took the scottish throne for himself. He was so power-hungry that he also wanted to kill Duncan’s son but they ran away and he was proposed as the king. He blamed two

Read More
673 Words | 3 Pages

Macbeth shows that he is willing to kill King Duncan because he is interested in the witches prophecy, after they tell him that he will become ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and then the King.

Read More
682 Words | 3 Pages

Macbeth is the Shakespearean play that features the triumphant uprise and the inevitable downfall of its main character. In this play, Macbeth’s downfall can be considered to be the loss of his moral integrity and this is achieved by ambition, despite this, Lady Macbeth and the witches work through his ambition, furthering to assist his inevitable ruin. Ambition alone is the most significant factor that led to Macbeth’s downfall. The witches are only able to influence his actions through Macbeth’s pre-existing and the three witches see that Macbeth has ambition and uses it to control his action. Ambition alone is displayed throughout the play to be the most significant cause for Macbeth’s downfall.

Read More
1145 Words | 5 Pages

Shakespeare engineered a most impressionable character in Macbeth who easily succumbs to the extensive magnitude of opposing constraints. This character is Macbeth, who is the protagonist in the play and husband to a conniving wife, who in the end is the sole cause for Macbeth 's undoing. Conflicting forces in the play compel internal conflicts within Macbeth to thrive on his contentment and sanity as he his torn asunder between devotion, aspiration, morality and his very own being. He has developed a great sense of loyalty from being a brave soldier; however, his ambition soon challenges this allegiance. As his sincerity begins to deteriorate, his own sanity starts to disintegrate until the point where he cannot differentiate between reality

Read More
781 Words | 4 Pages

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth the witches informs Macbeth of his fate that he will become the king in the future. Macbeth believes the witches words and Lady Macbeth persuade him to become the king and murder all the people that get in the way. Shakespeare shows us that fate is complicated by our actions, Macbeth will do anything to meet his fate that in the end lead him to his death because of his greediness.

Read More
1021 Words | 5 Pages

The audience can now see his desires as well as his ambition. At this point, Macbeth is still hesitant of revealing his true nature, but the audience gets a peek of what he yearns for. In addition, the witches’ predictions are known to be paradoxical, their predictions are never straightforward; they tend to have different interpretations. Macbeth kills King Duncan to obtain the power he was told he’d get. Despite that, the witches never said to kill King Duncan; they told him he would become king.

Read More
1241 Words | 5 Pages

“If good, why do I yield to that suggestion[killing Duncan]/Whose horrid image doth unify my hair” (I, III, 144-145). This quote indicates that the force of ambition is so strong within Macbeth that even he himself cannot understand why it is making him think of killing Duncan. Likewise, Macbeth’s ambition to become king is further emphasized after Duncan names his son Malcolm as his successor. Here, Macbeth says that he will have to “oerleap,/For in my way it [Malcolm] it lies” (I, III, 55-57).

Read More

More about What Is Free Will In Macbeth

Open Document