The Inevitable Death of Macbeth
William Shakespeare, in this tragedy Macbeth, leaves it up to the audience to decide whether it is Macbeth’s fate or his choices that leave him with people cheering at his head being raised on a post. Throughout the play the audience gets to see many occurrences of supernatural powers and also Macbeth’s ambition. These contradicting elements make it difficult for the audience to decide whether the main theme of this play is Macbeth’s fate and the supernatural powers that lead to his death or his choices and ambition. Macbeth’s iconic “Tomorrow” soliloquy captures this main theme of fate and the paranormal. As he goes through the speech, he connects life to a play, which follows a script all the way until the …show more content…
When he connects life to a “walking shadow, a poor player/that struts and frets his hour upon the stage/and then is heard no more”(5.5.2381-2383) he is using a metaphor to show that life has a script that it follows, and like a “poor player”, or bad actor, you must follow that script perfectly and no improvising. Shakespeare uses images of Macbeth in ill-fitting clothes to show that Macbeth was not comfortable in following his fate, (Spurgeon). This shows that although he was not comfortable in following his script he had no choice because his fate was already written out and had to follow it no matter what the cost. A part of this script for every person is dieing. Macbeth wishes his wife “should have died hereafter”(5.5.2374) because it was just a bad time for the news that his wife has died. He also knows dieing is a part of his fate at this point because the witches said that he “shall never vanquish’d be until/Great birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill/Shall come against him”(4.1.1658-1660). So he now realizes that this is when he dies and will not go down without a fight so he “will die with harness on” his back(5.5.2414). Macbeth knows his fate throughout the play because of the prophecies that the witches have told …show more content…
This scene foreshadows that the witches know macbeth’s fate and are going to meet “upon the heath/there to meet with Macbeth”(1.1.8-9). Shakespeare proves these supernatural powers again by the way “they can disturb the elements”(Walker, 148). They disturbed the elements so that the people around Macbeth would push him to follow his fate. Lady Macbeth was one element in Macbeth’s life that the witches disturbed by making her wish that she could be “unsexed” (1.5. 391). This unsexing made her forget about her feelings toward King Duncan and ultimately led Macbeth to killing him. As the supernatural powers of the witches shine when they are talking to Macbeth, “they are not strong enough to tempt” Banquo (Walker, 149). So although they have the power to tempt Macbeth, evil supernatural powers have no effect on his strong christian friend who has God on his side. These three witches also show their power by the way their words can eat at people 's minds. As the prophecies already came true and Macbeth is king, his “mind is still full of murderous thought” because of the way the witches changed him (Walker, 151). These words eating at his mind are part of this script of his life. What helped him follow this script were these murderous thoughts eating away at his mind that he could not
William Shakespeare, in this tragedy Macbeth, leaves it up to the audience to decide whether it is Macbeth’s fate or his choices that leave him with people cheering at his head being raised on a post. Throughout the play the audience gets to see many occurrences of supernatural powers and also Macbeth’s ambition. These contradicting elements make it difficult for the audience to decide whether the main theme of this play is Macbeth’s fate and the supernatural powers that lead to his death or his choices and ambition. Macbeth’s iconic “Tomorrow” soliloquy captures this main theme of fate and the paranormal. As he goes through the speech, he connects life to a play, which follows a script all the way until the …show more content…
When he connects life to a “walking shadow, a poor player/that struts and frets his hour upon the stage/and then is heard no more”(5.5.2381-2383) he is using a metaphor to show that life has a script that it follows, and like a “poor player”, or bad actor, you must follow that script perfectly and no improvising. Shakespeare uses images of Macbeth in ill-fitting clothes to show that Macbeth was not comfortable in following his fate, (Spurgeon). This shows that although he was not comfortable in following his script he had no choice because his fate was already written out and had to follow it no matter what the cost. A part of this script for every person is dieing. Macbeth wishes his wife “should have died hereafter”(5.5.2374) because it was just a bad time for the news that his wife has died. He also knows dieing is a part of his fate at this point because the witches said that he “shall never vanquish’d be until/Great birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill/Shall come against him”(4.1.1658-1660). So he now realizes that this is when he dies and will not go down without a fight so he “will die with harness on” his back(5.5.2414). Macbeth knows his fate throughout the play because of the prophecies that the witches have told …show more content…
This scene foreshadows that the witches know macbeth’s fate and are going to meet “upon the heath/there to meet with Macbeth”(1.1.8-9). Shakespeare proves these supernatural powers again by the way “they can disturb the elements”(Walker, 148). They disturbed the elements so that the people around Macbeth would push him to follow his fate. Lady Macbeth was one element in Macbeth’s life that the witches disturbed by making her wish that she could be “unsexed” (1.5. 391). This unsexing made her forget about her feelings toward King Duncan and ultimately led Macbeth to killing him. As the supernatural powers of the witches shine when they are talking to Macbeth, “they are not strong enough to tempt” Banquo (Walker, 149). So although they have the power to tempt Macbeth, evil supernatural powers have no effect on his strong christian friend who has God on his side. These three witches also show their power by the way their words can eat at people 's minds. As the prophecies already came true and Macbeth is king, his “mind is still full of murderous thought” because of the way the witches changed him (Walker, 151). These words eating at his mind are part of this script of his life. What helped him follow this script were these murderous thoughts eating away at his mind that he could not