Shakespeare's Macbeth

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, one could assume that Macbeth gained his position due to fate. From the entrance of the three weird sisters, it seems evident that fate, or destiny, plays a prevalent role by predicting that Macbeth will become king of Scotland. However, when Macbeth is initially told that he will become king, he becomes overwhelmed with the idea. After consulting his wife, Lady Macbeth, he comes to the conclusion that he must kill in order to obtain the throne. Soon, his indulgence in power and his habit of killing to obtain it consume him, ultimately resulting in his downfall. The reason that Macbeth becomes so ambitious to the point of regicide is due to his own free will, rather than a result to be attributed to fate. In this play, fate does not actively influence Macbeth's future as much as the idea of fate does. The idea of fate in Macbeth is the true force that plants the idea of regicide and tempts Macbeth into making choices with his own free will to commit such heinous crimes against his own king.

After the witches make their predictions on Macbeth's fate and vanish, Macbeth is immediately told that King Duncan has named him Thane of Cawdor (confirming the first of the witches' predictions). After this, Macbeth immediately becomes very eager, but then he says:

"Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill,

Why hath it given me earnest of success,

Commencing in a truth? I am thane of Cawdor:

If good, why do I yield to that suggestion

Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair

And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,

Against the use of nature? Present fears

Are less than horrible imaginings:

My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,

Shakes so my single state of man that function

Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is

But what is not." (Shakespeare 1.3.34-1.3.45)

This alludes to the fact that the first thing that strikes Macbeth after he is told that he will be king is that he might need to murder King Duncan, who stands in the way of the prophecy. Due to the nature of Macbeth being a warrior, it is not unreasonable for his mind to first reach this conclusion. However, we do see that this idea frightens Macbeth. It "unfixes his hair", and he knows that killing the King would be a wicked action, even though the witches never instruct him to kill. The idea of killing is one purely conceived by Macbeth. Later on, after continuing a bit of psychological warfare with himself over whether or not he should kill King Duncan, he eventually decides that he must take action or "o'erleap" obstructions in his path to the throne. He actively realizes that his desires are dark, sounding willful as he says,

"The Prince of Cumberland! that is a step

On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,

For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires:

The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be,

Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see."(Shakespeare 1.4.49-1.4.54)

This idea that fate has predetermined Macbeth as king acts as a catalyst for Macbeth's undoing. As soon as the idea of killing the