Macbeth Final Test: Fate and Free Will

The fate and free will of Shakespeare’s play can be viewed differently, however it’s very contradicting. The witches in Macbeth made three predictions of what would happen for the fate of Scotland. Their first prediction was the Macbeth would be made Thane of Cawdor. The second prediction was that Macbeth would become king. The third and final prediction was that Banquo’s sons would be made kings. I believe that if Macbeth wouldn’t have messed with fate, the witches’ predictions would have been the same, only that there only would have been one and that was that Macbeth would be made king. Fate and free will are two entirely opposite meanings, and I believe that free will caused Macbeth to fail.

If Macbeth would have let fate take its course, I do not believe that there would be any forced death’s on anyone in the play. I do believe that if Macbeth and Lady Macbeth would have left King Duncan alone, he would have died a natural death. Perhaps his son’s, Malcolm and Donnoblain would have renounced the throne and then the next person in line to claim it would have been Macbeth. Or perhaps he would have been Thane of Cawdor, anyhow there would be peace and no one would have had to die in the play, other than of a natural death. However, that also leads me to wonder if the witches predictions were based off of what they knew (out of free will) what Macbeth would have done. I still do believe though that what had happened in the play was of free will, only due to the fact that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth sped the process faster, in order for their own needs, instead of waiting to let time unfold itself.

Fate is something that’s meant to happen, something that will take its course naturally, and fold out evenly. I do believe that fate can also end in bad situations as well, but I do believe that in the end something good comes out of it. That is how I recognize free will in this play. I believe that free will can either end in a bad situation when forcing it or it can end in a good situation if fate was added to the process of free will. Obviously fate was not added, or if it was, there was too much free will behind it. Once someone (like Macbeth) does something bad, they have to cover up what they did, and it flows in a natural pattern of one bad thing after another. This pattern eventually will be recognized and will end up worse than it could have been from the very beginning.

One can say that this play was based off fate, or they can say that this play was based off free will, both will work, I just think it depends on what the reader thinks, and how they define the terms of fate and free will. Macbeth is a hard play to write this about, but it can also be an interesting thing to think about, it’s one of those situations that make you think deeply and really wonder what the true purpose of the play is about. Fate and free will are two entirely different things; however they can be intertwined in odd or different ways. Macbeth is a good example of how fate and free will fall together.