Macbeth and Fate

This blog post is a response to the following question:

3. Do you believe events in your life have been guided by fate or chance?  Why or why not?  Based on the text, what do you think Shakespeare's attitude was towards fate?  Does Macbeth have any choice in his actions or was everything predetermined? Use exampled from the text as your support.

As a 17 year old high school student, I have lived at home with my parents for my entire life.  Most of the major events in my life are somewhat related to my parents because they have been a huge part of my life since I was born.  I believe that the events that have happened so far in my life have been guided by fate.  My parents have morals and beliefs that they have taught me and through out my life I have had a set of expectations from my parents about what I should be doing with my life.  In the long run all of the things they want me to do will be helpful for my future (even though sometimes I don't want to do them).  The events that have happened to me so far are mostly because of things my parents want/influence/tell me to do and I believe that this has ultimately contributed to my success.

I think that if my parents adopted a child and raised it as their own, this kid would also be successful because of my parents influence on childhood.  I think that events in my life are guided by fate up until I end high school.  After that everything is up to chance because there are so many opportunities and choices that I must make as an adult.  There are many pathways I can take after I graduate from high school, but I believe that my whole life was fairly set from birth to high school.

Based on the text, I believe that Shakespeare's attitude towards fate is positive I think that he believes in it.  One reason I think this is because of the supernatural power. "Third Witch: All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter (Shakespeare 1.3)."  The use of a higher power (witches in this case) gives Shakespeare the ability to control the characters in whatever way he wants.  This higher power in some way controls Macbeth's life and sets Macbeth on a pathway to become king.

I think that Macbeth doesn't have any choice in his actions.  In the beginning Macbeth killed Duncan because of fate and the supernatural, and after that everything went downhill from there.  I think that fate allowed Macbeth to do this and it was predetermined that Macbeth would ultimately commit all of the evil deeds that he did.  In terms of Lady Macbeth, I think that her actions were influenced by Macbeth's, so her actions could be considered fate as well.