Macbeth, Destiny or Man?
At the beginning of Macbeth, the witches presented prophecy to Macbeth that he would be king, and to Banquo that his descendants would be king. Macbeth fulfills this prediction to a tee, and ends up dying for it. Now that the book is over, I would like to pose the question of whether or not Macbeth was really destined to do all the things that he did. After all, it is only because of the intervention of the witches that certain key plot points happen. For instance the letter Macbeth sends home to his wife that spurs her to to be meaner to him is only sent because the witches tell him that he will be king. And in the fourth act, when Macbeth seeks out the witches, they tell him that Macduff is dangerous, which prompts him to kill the entire Macduff bloodline, which in turn spurs Macduff to kill him. As shown in the final act, Macbeth certainly has the capability of being cruel within him, and his urge to survive cause him to treat people horribly. However, can we say for certain that he would have acted that way had the witches not intervened? Would he have ended up doing all that he did if he did not have foreknowledge of it, and could the prophecy turned out differently had not chose to kill the king? Though it is Macbeth who chooses to follow the prophecy, did he even have any agency to start with?
Well that depends on how you define 'destined'. The witches foretell Macbeth becoming King and Banquo's children succeeding him, and this does all occur. They knew a future event regardless of whether they caused it; they make no claim about it being his destiny in the sense of being his natural fate.
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ReplyDeleteWe talked about the placebo effect earlier in this class and Macbeth might have been experiencing it for the part of the prophecy that protects him from any man of woman born. He is confident and proud when he confronts Young Siward which probably helps in a sword fight to the death. When Macduff reveals that he was untimely ripped, Macbeth accepts that he is going to die and nearly gives up-- not an attitude that is going to help in a sword fight to the death. There is no evidence that Macbeth defeated Siward because he was magically protected and lost to Macduff because he was magically vulnerable.