FATE VERSUS FREE WILL Brittany Schnell-Dempster

English 12 Mr. Richard Immaculata Regional High School May 20, 2012

Is Macbeths future as King determined by fate or his own freewill? In this play Shakespeare deals with fate and free will in the role of Macbeth one of the main characters in the play who often makes a lot of big decisions in the different acts and scenes contrasting fate and free will. Lady Macbeth, three witches, McDuff, Duncan and Banqout all play a role in these decisions and actions made by Macbeth.

In the beginning Macbeth is at battle and is introduced to three witches. First witch proceeds to say All hail Macbeth hail to thee, Thane of Glamis. Second witch says All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee Thane of Cawdor! Third witch All hail Macbeth! That shalt be kind hereafter. Macbeth thinks about the prophesy. Having fate that he might become the king. He realizes that Duncan the present king is perfectly healthy and will not be stepping down from the thrown anytime soon or in the future. King Duncan was honoured to give Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor because of his impressing work in the war and felt that he deserved it. Macbeth was starting to see fate in what the witches said to him, but he did not understand how he was going to become the king. Macbeth realized the only way he was going to become king was if he got rid of him or killed him. It would be free will if he ever chose to proceed with any of those action.

Lady Macbeth received a letter about the witches prophesy, explaining that Macbeth will have to kill Duncan to become king but he is to kind to ever do a action like that. Macbeth knew Duncan as a guest in his home and was a good king to all. Macbeth had a hard time trying to convince himself to do such a thing and could not get his mind over such a thing to do. Lady Macbeth knew it was up to her to get her husband to become king, coming up with such a plan to do so. She planned to get Duncan's servants drunk before the dinner and then blame them for the murder by putting Duncan's blood on them to make it look like they killed him. The plan made it easier and more convincing for Macbeth to do it. Macbeth agreed to this plan that Lady Macbeth had purposed to him. He knew this was not fate seeings

how he knew he had a choice but agreed to go along with it. Lady Macbeth told Macbeth that she would ring the bell when everything was arranged and she was ready for the murder. She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee: He was hallucinating seeing the dagger with blood all over it and sets off to kill Duncan. After the murder he realizes he will never be able to sleep again because of what he did and will always remember the scene. His conscience realized what he did and that it was one hundred percent free will what just happened. McDuff found Duncan murdered in his room after arriving. Macbeth then finding the two servants with the bloody daggers killing both of them right there. Macbeth got what he wanted and became king after all thinking it was all fate.

Banqout suspected Macbeth as the murder, and wondered if the witches prophesy for him was going to come true as well. The witches said that his son would one day become king. Macbeth hired to men to assassinate Banqout and his son, but only got Banqout his son fled the scene. Later that night at the feast Macbeth hallucinated Banqout all bloody. Realizing what he had done was haunting him and none of this was fate, he created all this himself. Macbeth goes back to the witches the next day to get answers to all his questions if this is actually a prophesy and fate or just free will. McDuff flees to England to find Banqout's son, and see if he is ready to become king, he tells McDuff that he has a ten thousand person army and is ready. They proceed with there plan and come back to Scotland to find Macbeth and kill him after they found out about all the murders that Macbeth has took part in.

Free Will was a big part in Macbeth's decisions. Macbeth was convinced from the witches that this was all fate from the prophesies. Later on realizing they set this all up to play with his mind and watch him make bad actions. He chose to do what he wanted at the moment and did not let fate decide.