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Fate In Macbeth - College Term Papers

Fate In Macbeth

Fate plays a large role in Shakespeare's Macbeth. Not only do the weird sisters use it to wreak havoc among the Scottish nobility, but many people throughout the play try to tempt fate. Macbeth does it, as does Lady Macbeth. Then, later in the play, even Malcolm, Macduff and the other revolutionaries try to alter fate. Fate can be many things to many different people. To those who believe that fate is an all-encompassing aspect of God, fate is merely an excuse for one's deeds. But to Macbeth and the witches, fate was something much more complicated.
To the weird sisters, fate is not something to be overly concerned with. However, their superior, Hecate, obviously thinks that it was ...

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For instance, God is outside the normal limitations of time and is therefore immortal. In Macbeth, it seems, the witches are a transient hybrid of those in time and those not in time. That is to say, they can travel in and out of time at will. This ability allows them to both see the future and to change its very course. This of course proves to be an illogical paradox when examined analytically, but Shakespeare's great work is brimming with paradoxes ("Fair is foul, and foul is fair" I.i.11).
This ability leads to some interesting and important moments in the play. For one, the witches seem to already know the consummation of both Macbeth and Banquo's respective fates. However, they, for some reason unbeknownst to the audience, deem it necessary to interfere with this fate and tell Macbeth and Banquo about their futures. This makes it seem as if the witches have a human like desire for power, personified in their quest to affect the outcome of time. This desire, which ...

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Fate In Macbeth. (2004, August 12). Retrieved January 11, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Fate-In-Macbeth/12555

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 8/12/2004 12:40:29 PM
Category: Book Reports
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1072
Pages: 4

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