Fault And Fate In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

Nola Kilar

Mr. Norman

Honors English

08 February, 2023

Fault and Fate

Macbeth is a Shakespearean play with many themes tying into religion and philosophy. The biggest and arguably most important subject in the play is the idea of free will versus unchangeable fate. Macbeth wants to be king and consults the wayward sisters (witches) for advice. They tell him he will reign but Macbeth feels that he must murder the people in line for the throne to get his crown. He feels that the murders are his fate, yet he still makes the decision to commit them. Macbeth has free will throughout the play and Shakespeare’s authorial choices prove that his confusion of the two result in his demise.

For context, Shakespeare uses a lot of aside dialogue throughout the play. He uses this to show that one is never alone. This idea is represented by the audience being the omnipresence similarly to how God is the omnipresence in real life. Macbeth especially does this before he commits a murder, as a

The witches tell him that he will become king. This sparks the debate of whether or not the witches are really psychic, or if they’re trying to fool around with Macbeth’s sanity. Whatever the case may be, it’s guaranteed that he is not bewitched, but simply given an insight that may or may not be true. If it was true, hypothetically, he did not have to kill anyone to get his crown, because ‘chance would have him crowned.’ If it was untrue, he still did not have to kill anyone, because nothing would result from it, as later discovered in the play. However, evidence suggests that the only murder influenced by the witches was the first one. This is because Macbeth states, "in blood / Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more, // Returning were as tedious as go o'er" (III.IV.135-137). Showing that his following murders were due to bloodthirst and a desire to complete what has been