Examples Of Free Will In Macbeth

Lady macbeth has gone crazy just like her husband. She can not become at peace. She can not sleep because Macbeth has taken sleep away. As lady macbeth sleep walks she has dreams of the murders that have occurred. Her guilt is dormant and expressed through these dreams.

Macbeth: Free Will or Pre-Determined? If you have read any of William Shakespeare’s plays, you may have wondered if the characters’ destinies have been pre-determined or are being altered by the characters’ actions. For instance, when you read “The Tragedy of Macbeth”, you may have wondered if Macbeth’s destiny is pre-determined or if it is self-altered. Some people believe another force controls Macbeth’s life, and that everything is pre-determined.

It is an either or situation. Some people may think MAcbeth is controlled by fate, but quite a few people think Macbeth had complete free will. The reason people think that is because Macbeth “chose” to kill. The other reason people think Macbeth had free will is because he had the choice to deny Lady Macbeth and her wishes to have him do evil things. Another reason people may think Macbeth was controlled by free will is because he could have just stopped killing, he could have killed once and then moved on and stopped, but decided to kill more to solidate his power.

First, the three witches promised Macbeth three thing, “Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and Future king” as on page 15 Act 1 scene 3 lines 49-51. This is where the thought of being king was planted in Macbeth’s head. If this had never happened he probably wouldn’t

As soon as Macbeth becomes than he realizes that if everything is going to be decided by fate he is just going to wait for it to happen. Shortly after he becomes very impatient saying “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step/ On which I must fall down or else o’erleap,/ For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;/ Let not light see my black and deep desires./ The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be/ Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.”

Despite this, it is important to acknowledge that he has complete control over his actions in response to these two external factors. The witches predict that Macbeth will become King of Scotland, but they do not force him into acting towards their sayings. In fact Macbeth goes out of his way to contact the witches again to ask for more information. Similarly, Lady Macbeth pushes for murder but does not force him into following through with her desires. She herself even had second thoughts and did not go through with the murder.

(Act2:1:37-39). The imagery used of a brain physically over-heating accentuates the idea that Macbeth is beginning to lose his sanity as his brain can no longer function accordingly due to all the incalescence. Not only does the thought of killing Duncan cause Macbeth to hallucinate but also after having ordered the murder of Banquo, his guilt stricken conscience causes him to see Banquo 's ghost. No one else at the banquet can see the ghost which emphasizes that Macbeth is losing his sanity. Macbeth asks "Which of you have done this" (Act3:4:53) after seeing Banquo 's ghost because he believes one of the guests to be playing a prank on him as he is not aware that his own mind is hallucinating due to all the remorse.

“If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me, without my stir” (Shakespeare 144). Macbeth, a loyal subject to his king has an encounter that will change his fate with an ultimate effect on his free will. They claim three predictions, Macbeth will be the Thane of Cawdor and later crowned King but Macbeths lineage will not maintain the throne. After this supernatural confrontation, Macbeth questions this loyalty which will ultimately lead to his new fate carried out (LitCharts 1). Fully capable to act upon his own free will, Macbeth instead is driven by fate to his destruction which gives further insight of his character advancement.

Power and prosperity are two things that all people desire. Whether they be wealthy seeking more wealth, or impoverished looking for a way out, many people will do whatever they need in order to achieve their goals. However, the danger behind this, is that if determination or ambition goes along unchecked, then it can result in a pathway of destruction. In William Shakespeare’s, Macbeth, there is a lesson to be learned about how one should go about achieving goals, and then how one should be cognizant of his or her actions along the way.

If Macbeth had not have his own free will, they wouldn’t have all of these trouble. “Hell is murky!-Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account?-Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him” (5.1.30-34). Murder of Macduff’s family and Banquo has weigh heavily on lady Macbeth mind and become mentally ill and no doctor can cure her.

In play Macbeth, Shakespeare reveals that an individual’s great desire for power will lead him/her to perform consequential deeds that will scar his/her conscience and change the outcome of his/her life eternally. Macbeth is informed by three witches that he is going to become king and this initiates Macbeth’s thought of becoming powerful. Macbeth doesn’t act on his thoughts until he tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, that he could become king. Lady Macbeth is extremely power hungry and does all she can to convince Macbeth to be just as desirable as her. Together, they come up with a plan to murder King Duncan, so that Macbeth can become king like the witches foretold.

On many occasions, people can be given half truths, like Macbeth was by the apparitions in Act 4, Scene 1, but it is the individual’s job to take from it what they will as Macbeth did, and make their own destiny. Another character that fate vs. freewill affected in Macbeth, was Malcolm, the rightful heir to the Scottish throne. It was Malcolm’s fate to take over when his father Duncan died, but it was his free will that led him to flee Scotland when Duncan was murdered in Act 2, Scene

Macbeth started off as a valiant and courageous soldier, who would do anything for the king. By the end of the play, Macbeth was a tyrant and a horrible leader who killed those who trusted him to maintain the throne. It takes many factors to take a strong man and transform him into an evil monster. Macbeth’s downfall was caused by the deception and temptation of the witches and their prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s greed and aspirations for her husband to be king, and Macbeth’s own greed, jealousy and ambition.

At the beginning of William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ the protagonist Macbeth is described as ‘brave’, ‘noble’ and ‘honourable’, however Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeths desire for power consumes them. Macbeth’s ambition overrides his conscience and transformed his greatest strength into his greatest weakness. Macbeth’s inability to resist temptations that led him to be greedy for power, Macbeth’s easily manipulative nature which allowed his mind to be swayed, Macbeth having no self control and his excessive pride was what allowed him to renew his previously honourable and celebrated title into one of an evil ‘tyrant’. Macbeth is led by the prophecies of the witches after they foretell he will become the Thane of Cawdor. Not only the witches, but also his wife easily manipulate Macbeth as she attacks his manhood in order to provoke him to act on his desires.

At first these thoughts remain hidden, but when the witches approach him with their predictions his desires reform his character. The witches wait for Macbeth and tell him series of predictions. The specific prediction, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.51) causes Macbeth’s desire to become more intensified. Their prediction that he would become king brings a change in his character.