macbeth fate vs free will

Question 1

‘stars hide your fires let light not see my black and deep desires’

Answer 1

• Macbeth uses juxtapositions in this line to revel his confused and conflicted mind.
• He wants to hide his ‘black’ thoughts of betrayal from the light of the stars – the public word.
• The collective noun ‘stars’ is also symbolic of light, hope and goodness.
• It represents M’s good qualities: his loyalty, his courage, his patriotism and his deep ability to love; it could also be symbolic of Duncan whose ‘kingly becoming graces’ shine through.
• The adjective ‘black’ connotes evil and suggets that M is torn between his, dark side, his temptation to be king, and his loyalty to Duncan.
• He is ashamed of his thoughts and wants to hide them so no one will know.

Question 2

and oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence

Answer 2

• Act1 Scene3
• B is more cautious than Macbeth in reacting to the Witches’ prophecies
• he calls attention to the danger of acting on the predictions of the evil ‘instruments of darkness’ as he metaphorically describes the witches
• they may be telling a little truth in order to gain their confidence, so that they can deceive and betray them into causing harm
• this foreshadows M’s fatal decision to kill king Duncan
• raises the question ‘do the witches control M’s fate, or do M control his own fate by free will?’

Question 3

rather than so, come Fate into the list, and champion me to th’utterance

Answer 3

• Act3 Scene1
• M is challenging fate
• ‘Fate’ is personified and as he knows that he is a great warrior he invited ‘Fate’ onto the ‘list’ meaning battlefield to fight to ‘th’utterance’. ‘th’utterance’ means the furthest limit (death) and it shows how ambitious M is as he is trying to change his fate by beating it in a battle