BRYCE CHENG MACBETH ESSAY

In Shakespeare's play Macbeth, a predetermined fate drives the main character, Macbeth, into paranoia. Man's perception of fate does in fact affect man's actions in this play. Shakespeare shows this using characterization, specifically the actions and reactions of characters, to describe what exactly knowledge of your fate can do to a man.

This is most obviously shown through the main character of the story, Macbeth. Macbeth is involved in a murder and approaches three witches to find out what his fate will be. They predict that he shall fear Macduff but also add that no man born of a woman shall kill you. With this information, Macbeth kills Macduff's family to destroy any eminent threats. After all of the killing, in the end Macbeth ends up dying no matter how hard he tried to prevent it.

Characterization that Shakespeare used to convey this was characters actions. Macbeth shows his weakness and paranoia after he finds his fate by always being worried about it. Macbeth feared his fate and ended up killing another family due to his fear. Reactions Macbeth had were the same. He completely changes when he is told this by the witches.

Overall, Shakespeare's use of characterization has shown how a mans perception of fate can affect his actions. Due to human nature, man would want to change it. They will go to the extremes such as Macbeth to prevent the inevitable. To me, Macbeth would have done as any other man in his power, whatever he could to stay alive. It though backfired due to his selfish nature, taking the lives of many others to save his own.