Determinism In Macbeth

The question that’s often posed by individuals who read Shakespeares Macbeth is why Macbeth stoops to the level of evil that he does. One could almost see superficially that Macbeth is just a pawn of fate, which could be solidly supported by the witches Macbeth encounters and even his wife. And fate and free will is defined so elegantly in Walter T. Stace’s Is Determinism Iconsisitent with free will? as follows; “Acts freely done are those whose immediate causes are psychological staes in the agent, Acts not freely done are those whose immediate causes are states of affairs external to the agent.”(Stace). However, in reality, Macbeth is not one subject to merely fate. Macbeth freely chooses however to let fateful factors influence him to

Macbeth killing banquo is yet another example of Macbeth acting as an agent of free will. The decent to evil is in turn his fault alone. Macbeths killing of Banquo inheirently leads him down this destructive path and the guilt that fallows. This guilt that Macbeth feels after killing Banquo leads to the ghost being seen at the table. Macbeth in front of all the Scottish noblemen is the only one who sees the ghost of Banquo, “ Thous canst not say I dit: never shake? Thy gory locks at me” (3.4.45). These hallucinations that Macbeth experiences only prove as guilty to the thanes, for which they turn against him for this. All this will lead to the Thanes uprising and the eventual ruin of Macbeth. If viewed in this way, Macbeths free act of murder shows his free will. After Macbeth hears the second set of prophecchies from the witchs it once again shows his culpability of his own demise. The withches bring up apparitions that tell Macbeth, “beware Macduff/…None of women born shall harm Macbeth. /Macbeth shall never vanquis’d be until/Great Brinam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill/ Shall come against hime”(4.1.44-55).Macbeths acts on this by having Macduffs family servant killed. These murders although sparked by the witches prophecies lies purely on the hands of Macbeth. These acts are done freely and independently. Proving once again he is an agent of his own free will be commiting these hannous crimes and