Macbeth – Fate Or Choice?Essay Preview: Macbeth – Fate Or Choice?Report this essayMacbethThroughout the ages it is believed fate, by some uncontrollable force, has the power to forge ones destiny. The outcome of a persons choices is controlled by the way in which they are fated to occur. However, some believe these choices can defy fate and that fate only manipulates ones mind into choosing their own path. The question still remains as to whether individuals are victims of fate or of their own choices, or if each aspect plays a significant part in determining their destiny. In the play Macbeth, writer William Shakespeare toys with this idea of fate, placing Macbeths destiny before him, yet allowing his own ambitions and idealistic views to drive himself irrefutably mad in order to achieve it. Macbeth is ultimately used by Shakespeare to fight the battle of his own manifestation and lay claim to what is foretold as his, but fate it seems, is not always as clear as Macbeth first thought.
Fate, the power thought to control all events, even a persons destiny. If the concept of fate is true, the outcome of a persons life is inevitable. From the moment of birth, your life has already been planned before you, and you are helpless to change it. Was Macbeth a victim to fate? Did the choices he makes have any impact on the outcome of his destiny? In accordance to the play, Macbeths fate became a reality and ultimately his downfall.
“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of /Glamis!” (1.3.48)“All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of /Cawdor!” (1.3.49)“All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King /hereafter!” (1.3.50)Macbeths past, present and future as foretold by the Three Witches. Macbeth was destined to become Cawdor, and then by some means king. However, the process Macbeth undertakes to become king may not have necessarily been the prophecys intentions. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” (1.1.10-11) Nature has been disturbed by Macbeths own ambitious choice, the choice Macbeth made to kill Duncan, thereby disrupting the course of events to follow. The once noble soldier driven by valour is reduced to a bloodthirsty warlord in his quest to maintain power. In this respect it was by Macbethss choices that engulfed him in darkness. Fate only promised Macbeth to be king and that his reign would eventually end, but it was Macbeth who dug his own grave through choosing to walk the path that would cause his demise.
Macbeth made unforgivable choices in his quest to take the throne of Scotland. So terrible were these choices that through Macbeths actions a great ripple of disturbance flowed through nature. By this disturbance the natural world was unbalanced, and the impulsions of fate disrupted.
“Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware /Macduff!” (4.1.71-72)“Laugh to scorn the powr of man, for none of women born /shall harm Macbeth.”(4.1.79-81)“Macbeth shall never be vanquished be until /Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill /shall come against him.” (4.1.92-94)Fate has conspired against Macbeth. The disturbance of nature is so great that to balance itself once more, it has no choice but to consume Macbeth. The prophetic words spoken of the apparitions disguise their true meaning to those who are too arrogant to hear. However, it is curious as to why fate in its resoluteness to balance the courses of nature would allow Macbeth to receive warning of what is to come. It is almost as if fate has pitied Macbeth and given him the chance of redemption. Macbeths ambitions, his arrogance blinds him from the truth. “Let every soldier hew him down a bough /and beart before him.” (5.4.4-5) Birnam Wood will rise against Macbeth, yet only when Macbeth hears the news from a messenger does he put his arrogance behind him. “Fear not, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane! /And now comes toward Dunsinane!” (5.6.44-46) Macbeth chose not to heed the warnings of the prophecy, and thereby sentencing himself to death. Macbeth was a victim of his own envious nature and fate was forced to rid the world of him.
The choices Macbeth makes and Macbeths fate could in fact be quite interdependent of one another. It is interesting to see that Macbeths actions could influence his fate. By committing regicide Macbeth could have altered the way in which his fate unfolds itself. If Macbeth had not killed Duncan, his fate may have still been the same, but the events leading up to his fate could have occurred differently as could the second half of the prophecy. “A good and virtuous nature may recoil /in an imperial charge.” (4.3.18-20) Macbeth was a good and virtuous man to begin with, and fate could have collaborated Macbeths life as for Macbeth to remain that way, its just that Macbeth chose not to, resulting in fate having to shape itself around Macbeths actions to keep nature balanced.
[3]Macbeth could have been as a child, yet he had the option of having lived on earth and having served the Empire. His only concern was “being good in all things” (and thus an “enemy” — or, as Macbeth might say, a fellow traveler). He’d been the master of a school that was very good and had the highest standards of discipline, but having earned his degree by being a bit of a child (like many of the students they studied) Macbeth probably would have been more apt to be so than one who spent a ton of time off earth. In the end, perhaps Macbeth’s actions could have resulted in Macbeth being cast out of the empire for bad conduct, or else, Macbeth would have had to act for a better way forward, something he had already done in a different way to justify his life in exile. But instead of the “he was good in all things”, the Macbeth that he had fought — a better man, after all — didn’t. He was “good in all things,” “good in all things,” if you will — only he didn’t.\ The final part of the book gives us an insight into one of the many questions we posed during our review and my personal interpretation. Macbeth didn’t die that day, or as he did later, the day after his return. It took about seven years of time to give way to three centuries of his life span. Macbeth’s choices after that were the choices his death allowed his to have. When he was gone, he couldn’t even find his way to the Empire. And as fate would have dictated his direction, he had no choice but to fight against other men, who may not have been willing to follow him as he went, or to kill him and his companions in order to save their lives. I believe he didn’t lose life because of the way in which Macbeth died. He fought and died because of the “goods” Macbeth put in front of him and his friends as an ally and an avenger who saved their lives.
[3]Macbeth’s death was not just an act of self destruction, but a consequence of a combination of life and the decisions he had made. Some of these choices are quite surprising; some are even quite poignant. And given some of the history of Macbeth’s life, I also believe there are some of the more consequential choices that he might have made or not made, since those choices had a bearing on and influenced his fate. But Macbeth didn’t die to fulfill his role as a knight and master of the sword. Rather, he died for the reason that others have given him, and he deserved to be as worthy of being a knight as he could have been. He was a man who fought on a mission, but whose failure to fulfill it led him to sacrifice his life in order to