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Macbeth Fate Vs Free Will Analysis

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The debate of fate vs free will controlling our decisions has gone on for centuries. It is also a prominent subject in William Ernest Henley 's poem Invictus, which strongly promotes the idea of free will in the midst of challenges, and in William Shakespeare’s beloved tragedy Macbeth. In the play, Macbeth goes through a mental deterioration, due to his actions in his quest to become king. At first, Macbeth meets three witches who give him a prophecy that he would be king, with some uneasiness and some help from his wife he kills the king and takes the throne and then continues to kill all of his threats. Fate can not be a reasoning for his actions; the idea of fate is rather a disguise for one’s results. All of the decisions Macbeth made and all the lives he took because of those decisions are all products of his own free will. The play itself along with the poem Invictus, prove the actuality of the idea of free will. People use ambition to seek their goals. It is one of the main motives behind successful people. When someone becomes successful usually, that status does not just approach them. They are usually hard workers who endlessly worked …show more content…

When Macbeth is prophesied to be king he strongly believes it but, as he was close to dying, he chooses to not fear death or the prophecies for any longer. William Ernest Henley on the other hand, presents himself as unafraid of fate, throughout the poem since he does not believe in it and claims he has an “unconquerable soul”(Henley 4). Through these texts, the authors propose that actions are caused by motivation, everyone handles challenges differently, and that struggles or rewards are given through someone else’s free will. Though fate may be implicated from time to time in these texts, one’s ultimate decisions made them who they are and what they

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