fate in Macbeth
Fate plays a large role in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Not only do the weird sisters use it to wreak havoc among the Scottish nobility, but many people throughout the play try to tempt fate. Macbeth does it, as does Lady Macbeth. Then, later in the play, even Malcolm, Macduff and the other revolutionaries try to alter fate. Fate can be many things to many different people. To those who believe that fate is an all-encompassing aspect of God, fate is merely an excuse for one's deeds. But to Macbeth and the witches, fate was something much more complicated. To the weird sisters, fate is not something to be overly concerned with. However, their superior, Hecate, obviously thinks that it was important enough to discipline the weird sisters verbally for abusing it. To the weird sisters, fate, and for that matter it seems, time, is merely as water and bread are to Macbeth: they exist and can be altered. This view of fate is not as ambivalent as the other view, but is more a view along the lines of Thomas Aquinas or Kurt Vonnegut. According to Aquinas, time is something that you both exist in and are affected by or you not. One is either subject to the limitations of time or one is not. For instance, God is outside the norma
The witches seem to know that whether or not Macbeth chooses to wear his gold armor or his silver armor will not affect his receiving the crown, and whether or not he kills Duncan will drastically effect when Macbeth will receive the crown. According to fate, the witches cannot directly effect whether or not Macbeth becomes king because that event is already predetermined, but they do, however, have the capability to change the route which Macbeth takes to reach the throne and thus the aftermath of his rise. This ability leads to some interesting and important moments in the play. For one, the witches seem to already know the consummation of both Macbeth and Banquo's respective fates. However, they, for some reason unbeknownst to the audience, deem it necessary to interfere with this fate and tell Macbeth and Banquo about their futures. This makes it seem as if the witches have a human like desire for power, personified in their quest to affect the outcome of time. This desire, which seems to be the root of their actions, also becomes the root of Macbeth's eventual fall from power. Macbeth's over-zealousness for political power led him to the murder of Duncan, the assassination of Banquo, and finally the slaughter of MacDuff's family. These events spur the revolution that eventually costs Macbeth his crown and his life, not to mention the wife he loses along the way. While fate can be viewed as something that cannot be altered, the only way a strong person would ever use fate is to his or her advantage. To use fate as a source of stability and grounds for faith in one's own self and one's own abilities
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1095
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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