Examples Of Freewill In Macbeth

Is Macbeth a victim of fate or freewill? Fate and freewill are two very different things. In the story of Macbeth Shakespeare draws a fine line between the two themes. Macbeth decides on his own whether or not to commit a heinous crime against the king, but is it fate or freewill? There will never be a full answer to this question, but by listening to the witches and believing their prophecies, Macbeth’s ambition leads him to believe that he can act to fulfill his sure fate and decide when it will come to pass. At the beginning the witches talk to Macbeth in an influential way about becoming king. Greed comes into play as well when Macbeth starts to think about all the power he would have as king. The question is whether the witches cast an …show more content…
“If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me, without my stir.” (1.3.144) Will the prophesy come true no matter what Macbeth does? The truth is we will never know. Macbeth tries to master fate to make things go his way. Of course fate does not work that way. Macbeth could watch the witches prophesy come true right in front of his own eyes, but his own greed and his wife’s ambition spur him on to force this possible fate to happen on his own terms. Everyone has freewill. That is one of the things God gave all human beings - the power of freewill. No one knows if the witches curse actually brought Macbeth to do things against his freewill or if they just influenced him to do the things he did by prophesying about him being King. “Macbeth’s poor judgment and ignorance slowly paved the dark path into hell, not fate.” (Writinghood) Macbeth wants nothing more than to be king and he will give anything or do anything to become so. Macbeth uses his freewill to decide his own fate. Had Macbeth waited to see if he would become king without killing anyone, the fate prophesied for him might seem more magical. Instead, Macbeth falls to human ambition and greed using the witches’ words as an excuse to act on his