The question of if humans are truly responsible for their own actions has sparked a debate in humanity throughout history. In the non-fiction article, “Freewill and Determinism” written by Saul McLeod, he compares the different aspects of freewill and determinism. Throughout the article, McLeod explains how freewill and determinism, while very different, go hand in hand with each other. To go with that, in the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, many of the explanations in the article as to why people do what they do can be helpful when trying to figure out Macbeth's poor decision making. To begin the story, Macbeth was a trustworthy and loyal warrior for King Duncan. However, Macbeth starts to form a desire to be King. His goal to …show more content…
In act one, Macbeth receives news that King Duncan decided to name Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland. The news troubles Macbeth greatly as his quest for power is threatened. In order to achieve his goal, Macbeth concludes he must dismiss the direction of fate and take matters into his own hands. Macbeth expresses his feelings by saying “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else over leap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! Let not see my black and deep desires” (I.4.50-53). Macbeth’s true character is finally shown. The description of “black and deep desires” foreshadows the malicious crime he will cause. His poisoned ambition causes chaos while mixing with his free will. Macbeth is “self determined” (McLeod), which ultimately directs him to his …show more content…
The three evil witches are said to have control over his future. However, these three were just another mind game that should have been avoided. The witches chant “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter” (I.3.51). In other words, they are saying that Macbeth will be king in the near future. While it may be true the witches can suggest and predict, they never have complete control. Macbeth’s already harmful mindset collides with the witches. “(S)he is propelled in this direction by environmental circumstances” (McLeod). In this case, Macbeth is not in the correct state of mind to realize the witches are just another voice and the decision is ultimately
I personally believe that we have control of how are destiny will work for us. We can do the right things in life, or do the not so good things that sabotage the way our destiny is suppose to work out for us. In The Sports Gene, by David Epstein, Donald Thomas was led to his destiny by a bet from a current track member who did high jump. He then found out that he was naturally good at high jump, because of his giant achilles tendon. But in Macbeth, by Shakespeare, Macbeth sabotaged the way he was going to become king of Scotland.
A theodicy attempts to explain why a just and good God would ever allow the existence of evil on earth. The Free Will Theodicy states that the reason that God would not prevent suffering is that “the suffering of the innocent is justified by the existence of free will”. This theodicy also claims that there are natural evils (such as accidents, diseases, etc.) and moral evils, and that moral evils only exist due to humans misusing their sense of free will. According to the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare the awareness that a deed is immoral is what makes fulfilling the deed evil. Nothing an animal does can be seen as cruel because their actions are purely instinctual, mankind is unique in that we have free will and sense of right and wrong, which means that we are the only species capable of true cruelty or evil.
Macbeth come across the three witches, there they state, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor” (Act 1, Scene 3). In reply to the three witches, Macbeth demanded “stay you imperfect speakers! Tell me more”. With just these few statements announced, Macbeth’s thirst for power and glory arises and is clearly seen.
Persuasion : A skill which can turn a Militant Hero to a Merciless Tyrant Who has more power in a relationship, the woman or the man? In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth bears the responsibility for the death of Duncan; in addition, to the ruin and ultimate downfall of her husband. Unlike most Scottish women in 1606, Lady Macbeth appears to be the confident and dominant figure in the relationship. After reading the letter from Macbeth, Lady Macbeth calls on evil spirits to help her persuade him to kill Duncan. Lady Macbeth convinces Macbeth by causing a discrepancy in Macbeth’s reality of right or wrong and; in fact becoming his partner in crime.
In the tragedy of Macbeth written by William Shakespeare, we clearly see that deception is a repeating theme throughout the entire play. It is significantly shown through the actions and choices they make that deception, is their clear motif. In this particular play, the deception that Shakespeare shows through the characters reveals their true self and their intentions for one another. From the very start of the play, deception was shown through a phrase said by all three witches “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”. This could imply that this play might revolve around a lot of lies and tricks towards each other.
In Macbeth, Shakespeare writes about a man named Macbeth, who has a very strong ambition to be the the king of Scotland. His credulousness led him into believing the prophecy from the three witches without thinking rigorously. Because of this prophecy, Macbeth is willing to do everything he can to gain the throne, even to the extreme of murdering someone. Shakespeare uses syntax, similes, and personification to convey the evolution of Macbeth’s insanity.
He thinks about this despite the fact that he serves the current king. Macbeth’s belief in his inherent right to power leads to fantastical dreams
Bound by Fate, Pained by Free Will For centuries, many people have debated and grappled with the idea of fate versus free will. Is a person’s life controlled by fate or is a person entirely responsible for their actions and subsequent consequences? American Professor Randy Pausch describes the relationship between fate and free will well when he writes, “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the game”. In the tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, it appears as though Macbeth’s fate is predetermined from the beginning, however, it is his actions that determine how he reaches his destiny.
Often times, people go through rises and downfalls in their lives that they themselves are responsible for. In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, both main characters, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth, himself, are responsible for the downfall of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is responsible for the tragedy because she convinces and manipulates Macbeth into doing the deed. However, Shakespeare accomplishes in showing that Macbeth is more responsible for his own downfall than Lady Macbeth because he listens to the witches and follows his ambition rather than his conscience. To begin, Lady Macbeth is responsible for the tragedy because she convinces and manipulates Macbeth into doing the deed by insulting him when he changes his mind.
We all desire power depending on how much is up to the person and how they use it. " Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". This statement is expressing the theme of Macbeth and what happen during the Holocaust. Macbeth and Hitler both received power at their own paste they did do damage with the power they contained and that failed them, but once they received total power the world fell right through their hands an corrupted due to their ego's Macbeth learned about his future power from three witches. These witches told him that he would be king of Scotland, but Scotland already had a king, King Duncan was king of Scotland the king had trusted Macbeth to help him and stay with him.
Vaulting Ambition in Macbeth “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o 'erleaps itself, / And falls on th’other. . .”. Macbeth like a horse has no spur, he does not want to commit murder but his vaulting ambition causes him to overleap himself and carry out actions which he regrets. His ambition is his major flaw as it makes him desire things which most would find impossible to achieve but with his sometimes crazy eagerness he rationalizes his actions for his unachievable goal. Macbeth 's blind ambition is the main reason he is crowned but it is also the main reason for his fall.
Macbeth’s wish to become the king encouraged him to achieve his goals by any means. His intention is
Personal greed is “an excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth…” which Claudius analyzes in Hamlet and Macbeth depicts in the tragedy Macbeth. Throughout both tragedies Claudius and Macbeth strive only for greed and obtaining what they don’t have. Their methods to achieving more are through becoming a tyrant over all who threaten them. A tyrannical ruler is one who cannot be content with what they possess and use unjust rules to maintain their power. Throughout Hamlet and Macbeth, two characters, Claudius and Macbeth, become consumed with their own personal which, results in their own demise.
Put the words “infirm of purpose” and discuss how it justifies the impression you get from Macbeth’s character. The words “infirm of purpose” is a way to show just how people feel about the things they have done. In the story of Macbeth, the character of Macbeth has a strange infirm of purpose, and he shows his true feelings throughout the story. These allow the people to control him and allow him to control just as much as he can. This allows him to not only get sympathy from ready but to also get readers angry.
The three witches’ prophecies acted as a trigger that influenced and obscured Macbeth’s “vaulting ambition”, causing him to become presumptuous as they mislead him into falsely believing that he was invulnerable and unconquerable with their deceptive use of equivocation, thus leading him to his undoing. Though the witches don’t force Macbeth to do anything, they merely revealed the future and chose to confront Macbeth when he was most vulnerable, planting a ‘seed’ in his head that “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” and that “none of woman born Shall harm Macbeth” which inevitably start dominating the way he acted. Initially, the witches’ deceptive tidings of their chiasmus “fair is foul and foul is fair” is imagery used to echo the notion of moral contamination whilst their impact on Macbeth’s already troubled mind contextually depicts them as agents of the devil. With their adoption of ambiguous language, they ‘palter with Macbeth in riddles and affairs of death’ and as a result he is ‘drawn into confusion’, which is used by Shakespeare to convey the danger of suggestion, that depending on the conditions, they may be harmless, delusive or insidious.