If the regicide was truly predecided destiny and had been foretold by the witches, why then would the couple be culpable in regards to the murder? Macbeth’s hallucinations of daggers and ghosts and Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking and eventual suicide are not products of fate, they are afflictions of the mind. The blood is on Macbeth’s hands, he is responsible for what his own hands did, not a prophecy or a witch or the taunting of his wife. It is what makes the play a tragedy, to see a man ruined by his own free will. Macbeth’s “black and deep desires” (1.4.58) is what drives his actions, not a supernatural entity, and his choice to commit a deed he knows to be evil is what causes him and his wife
This temptation for the crown fuels Macbeth’s ambition and thrusts him into unnecessary action, which ultimately leads to his downfall. Similarly, in The Crucible temptation is also present. It is a major belief of the Puritans that once a sin is committed it cannot be washed away. John Proctor is a character that is portrayed as an honest and good man, but he falls into temptation and sins. Abigail says to Proctor, “I know how you clutched my back behind your house and sweated like a stallion whenever I come near!
Although Banquo’s ghost is most likely Macbeth’s insanity, the possibility that the ghost is there simply to torture Macbeth, as he believes that “It will have blood, they say. Blood will have blood.” (III, iv, 128). Appearances versus reality does not just include faux visions, but people being fake externally as well. This can be seen by Lady Macbeth telling her husband to “Look like th ' innocent flower, But be the serpent under ’t.”, which means that she wants her husband to seem as if he is innocent, while preparing to murder Duncan (I, v, 56-58).
In the play, control is divided between Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and the Witches. To begin with, Macbeth exemplifies his control in the play by beginning the the play by the quote, “If chance will have me king, why chance may crown me” (1.3). Macbeth is in a way foreshadowing what
Firstly, the witches could have complete power over Macbeth’s destiny while he has no control whatsoever. On the other hand, there is also the argument that Macbeth carves his own path due to his ambitious nature. However, the witches cannot control the fate of Macbeth because we control our own fates, and our own actions in the present are what shapes our future. Macbeth is seen as a very ambitious character from the start of the play while fighting against the rebels, to the end when he is slain. How he decides he uses his ambition
Macbeth expresses his fear of losing his crown shortly after through the use of metaphorical language. He begins by stating that “Our fears in Banquo/Stick deep” (50-51), portraying the idea that Macbeth has little trust in Banquo and believes that his crown is in jeopardy because of him. His feelings of mistrust develop as he states that the “dauntless temper of Banquo’s [his] mind” (54) has prevented Macbeth from having faith in him. In addition to Banquo’s courageous spirit, his sons lie in wait for the thrown, resulting in rage and panic overcoming Macbeth. His rage is conveyed as he expresses that he has murdered Duncan and has had “rancours in the vessel of his [my] peace” (68) put inside of him.
Macbeth cannot control his paranoia and hallucinations, but he can control his actions towards the prophecies he 's given in the beginning. By the end of the play, his paranoia led to his lonely demise which showed how he believed in the prophecies. Macbeth’s control over his destiny reflects on what the play is teaching us overall. A way Macbeth is in control of his destiny is when he believes in the prophecies.
In the play Macbeth, Macbeth is faced with the decision to kill King Duncan to become king or not. He first is told by the witches that it is his destiny that he will become king, but he brushes it off as nothing. This vision of him as king becomes brighter when his wife says that he should kill the king. Macbeth has many internal struggles over what he should do. Should he be morally sound and not kill the King or take the chance and do it.
Macbeth was so terrified that he went to attack his castle and sent a murderer to kill his sons. Macbeth thinks that Macduff was a traitor and had never been loyal to him. Macduff wanted to kill him, so he will not do any harm to the country (Shakespeare 63).
Macbeth was not the true villain because he was influenced by ambition and persuasion in the form the witches prophecy, “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter. ”(1.3.50) This led to the thoughts of murder for Macbeth’s gain. It is clear that the witches are the only true villain, because only they were the main cause for all of Macbeth’s murders. Not only is it clear in the play, but if you look at the background knowledge surrounding the play, you would know it was written for King James of England, who was very persistent in capturing and prosecuting “witches” , so Shakespeare had made the three witches the villains to give himself a good image with the king.
Throughout Willliam Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the idea of fate and what controls it is a major theme. Macbeth shows that, although outside forces plant seeds, men have the ability to control their own fate. Macbeth was influenced by the words of the witches, believing that the words that could potentially lead him to ultimate power. Macbeth received a prophecy that could possibly change his life; however, the only clear cut way he saw to get there was through murder.
Moreover, it is shown that Macbeth is not just a character that the witches try to control, but that he has enough choice to create his own path in life. Macbeth lets the witches’ prediction, that he “...shalt be king hereafter” (Shakespeare I.iii.53), influence the decisions he makes. Macbeth blindly listens to the witches’ prophecy without any proof, so he “... is not only a tyrant, but also his unselfconscious superstition causes him to be an incompetent one” (McGrail 32). Macbeth chooses to believe in the witches rather than dismissing their words like Banquo does. Therefore, it is this choice that leads him to his doomed fate.