Fate, Prophecy and Free Will Flashcards
How do the 3 witches link to classic literature?
In classical literature, the fates are portrayed as 3 women.
At first, does Macbeth believe in fate?
Macbeth says, ‘If chance will have me king,why, chance may crown me’. This means, if I’m prophesised to become King then I don’t need to take any sort of further action in order to become King. Here, Macbeth puts this decision in fate’s hands and believes in it.
How is Macbeth’s naivety shown through prophecy?
Later prophecies seem to mock the idea of free will, saying that ‘Macbeth shall never vanquish’d be until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill’.
It wouldn’t have been much of an abstract tactic to camouflage using the forest to charge the castle, it’s almost Macbeth being naïve and wanting to believe it, it’s not much a prophecy at all. Similarly, he is told to ‘Beware Macduff’.
However, it was obvious that Macduff was an enemy since he didn’t show up to Macbeth’s banquet then fled to England. Again, it’s not much of a prophecy.
How does the final scene link to free will?
Again, ‘no man born of woman’ is what gives Macbeth his false sense of confidence, until Macduff claims he was ‘untimely ripped’ from his mother’s womb. However, this still makes him born of a woman. After Macduff makes this claim, Macbeth surrenders to Macduff, surrending to what he thinks is his fate when it is actually his free will.
Why does Shakespeare undermine the power of fate?
This could be Shakespeare undermining the power of fate, he completely believes in free will and how one’s actions leads to success/failure. We can look into Shakespeare’s life and see how attractive it would be to believe that all his success is as a result of his wisdom and genius as a writer rather than it was his fate, out of his control.
