Macbeth Essay! Period 1, Team 8, Jessie Yen

In Shakespeare’s “Macbeth,” the ideas of “consequence” and “luck” do not exist – there is only a single, stationary path that people follow throughout their lives. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth inevitably fall to this notion, setting in motion a chain of action that turns the story of a humble general into the story of a bloodthirsty and vengeful tyrant.

Macbeth’s character is one defined by the idea of a fixed destiny. Once the Three Witches reveal to Macbeth what they believe is to become of him in the future, Macbeth loses all autonomy. Every action he takes stems from a single source: the prediction of the Three Witches. What he chooses to do is no longer decided based on what he wants - it is, instead, decided based what the Three Witches say will become of him. He murders King Duncan, not out of personal spite or hatred, but because the Witches told him that he “shalt be king hereafter!” – Duncan was an obstacle to their prophecy. He ends Banquo’s life simply because the Witches predicted that Banquo’s kin “shalt get kings, though thou be none,” threatening Macbeth’s position as monarch. From the very moment Macbeth started believing in the idea of a constant and fixed destiny, he lost the ability to take action through his own resolve; this leads to his rise to power and his eventual death. Ultimately, Macbeth becomes a puppet to his “fate,” – sequentially, Macbeth becomes a puppet to the words of the Witches, who drive the story with their forecasts and calculations.

Lady Macbeth is similarly driven by the idea of a predetermined course for life. Once she receives the letter from Macbeth detailing what he learned from the Witches, she becomes centered on the Witches’ divination. When Macbeth shows hesitation over killing Duncan, Lady Macbeth reassures him that nothing could go wrong – after all, they were only following the steps that would lead them to their future. Through her belief in her seemingly fixed future, Lady Macbeth becomes “filled from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.” Lady’s Macbeth loss of innocence is what energizes most of the story – she is the driving force that pushes Macbeth to go further and to fulfill what the Witches told him; she constantly reassures her husband of the strength of the Witches prediction, strengthening his belief in their foretelling powers and pushing him to continue his bloody trek to gaining power. Lady Macbeth’s confidence in the idea of fate and her sense of “[feeling] the future in the instant” causes her to lose her ability to make her own decisions, and instead forces her to rely on what the Witches told her husband. This shift in power gives the Witches the ability to control Macbeth’s strongest support pillar, ensuring that his life would become one guided by their designations.

The Three Witches, who are arguably the root of the entire play, represent the idea of fate and prophecy. They convince Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to “screw [their] courage to the sticking-place;” if they did so, the Witches promised, their prophecies would not fail. In listening to their words, Macbeth murdered those who stood in his way and became King. In listening to their words, Lady Macbeth did what was necessary for Macbeth’s success and, eventually, killed herself from the guilt. The Three Witches’ words of the future and what was to happen forced Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to abandon the idea of independent action – this allowed the Three Witches to, essentially, control the activities of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth went from stumbling through life of their own accord to fighting and slaying whoever they thought was a hindrance to their, self-proclaimed, certain future. To the Witches, words were power, capable of stealing the self-determination of anyone weak enough to fall prey to their sayings.

Shakespeare’s Macbeth is heavily controlled by the impression of a single, fixed future. Characters do what they can to reach this future, believing that there is no other alternative prospect; the desire to reach what has been predicted is what invigorates most of the storyline. Consequently, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth become tangled around the words that the Three Witches weave, losing control of themselves to the prospect of fate and destiny.