Fate+or+Free+Will

Fate or Free Will

=Precis: =

Precis Number 1: "Bargains with Fate" The Case of Macbeth" Bernard J. Paris’ article, “Bargains with Fate: The Case of Macbeth” (1982) asserts that Macbeth disrupts his own bargain with fate and then consequently due to the psychological effects, he instinctively demolishes himself. Paris backs this claim up by explaining the details behind each action Macbeth took throughout the play; because he wants the thrown so bad, he went to any limit just to prove his manliness as well, but eventually all the actions caught up to him and “Macbeth oscillates between fear, despair, hope, and courage…which give[s] him a feeling of invulnerability until they prove to be equivocal”. In order to receive the power his wife truly wants him to have, Paris explains how no hesitation nor moral discomfort is seen after his crimes and “his inner conflicts seem to disappear”. Given the formal language and references to other Shakespeare characters, Paris is writing to an well-educated audience who is familiar with previous plays written by Shakespeare.

Precis Number 2: "Character and Daemon, Fate and Free Will in Macbeth" Unhae Langis (author of "Character and Daemon, Fate and Free Will in Macbeth" (2013)) argues that it was both fate and free will that led to MacBeth's tragic downfall. MacBeth's downfall came from the possession of his being by a "daemon" or spirit. MacBeth's honorable character was tested by the daemon when it gave MacBeth the desire for power, and this hunger was intensified by Lady MacBeth. MacBeth's fate to be king was promised by the witches, but his downfall and the murders he committed on his rise to power were caused solely by MacBeth's faults and weakness of character. Langis describes MacBeth's tragic downfall in order to show that only when a man's character is tested can he truly find out who he is. Langis writes for a more mature, educated audience. She uses intelligent language and complex ideas about a highly regarded piece of literature while also using other highly regarded pieces of literature to support her claim.

Precis Number 3: "In an Extract" Gustav von Rumelin, "in an extract" (1986), asserts that the root of the evil within Macbeth and Lady Macbeth originated within their own hidden demons and not in the suggestions of the witches; these "demons" only needed a suggestion of possibility to cling to in order to sprout and result in monstrous crimes. By first questioning the existence of the witches and then pointing to the complete character reversal of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Rumelin demonstrates that there is no psychological backing to support that Macbeth could entirely neglect his previous nobility and feel no desire to compensate for his ill-gotten crown, while Lady Macbeth is a victim of such an overpowering guilt that she falls into madness. Rumelin points to this evidence in order to reject the idea that Macbeth is a play about the inevitability of a predetermined fate but actually a story about a man's release of his inner evil. He presents this theory to an audience of those who are familiar with the work and would too readily assign the action taking place within it as a destiny.

Food For Thought:


 * Who had a greater influence on Macbeth's choices, the witches or Lady Macbeth?
 * Were the murders of Duncan, Banquo, etc. required for Macbeth's eventual rise to power? Or if he had let nature it's course would he have eventually become king anyways?
 * Was Macbeth an honorable man turned murderous or was he always a heartless killer?
 *  Is Macbeth possessed by evil when he kills Duncan, or was evil already within him but called honor due to his prominence in battle?
 * When in the play does Lady Macbeth begin feeling guilt/ losing her mind? How does this demonstrate how evil has influenced her?

=Quotes: =


 * “Whenever, then, we find that the memory of a criminal act, however successful and enduring it its issues it may have been, awakens a repentance and moral detestation so consuming that for no single instant is it absent from the mind of the criminal, and that self-abhorrence leads to insanity and suicide, then we may properly assume for such a character a susceptibility to moral emotions of no common strength. Furthermore, it is conceivable that with such a susceptibility there may coexist a proneness to the blackest of crimes; for in the same breast passions and desires of a different and far more violent nature may be harboured”(Rumelin 2).


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Essentially, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were driven to madness not by evil, but by their own inability to cope with the guilt of their actions. Macbeth does not destroy Scotland because he is possessed by evil witches, but because he is so consumed with the madness of the world he has ruined that he cannot really help himself. He lashes out and kills everyone in an attempt to keep control, but through this he further loses control.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“Macbeth must wade on in blood in order not to fall”(Rumelin 2).


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Rumelin implies that Macbeth’s only way of holding on to himself and his crown is by continuing to carve his way through the people who distrust him, these being the people he has damned through his corrupt and cruel use of his power.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"He is driven less by his serach for glory than by fear of his wife's rejection and of his own-self contempt. He is compelled to live up to the idealized image of a man which is dictated by Lady Macbeth and by his arrogant-vindictive shoulds."
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Paris is implying that Macbeth's actions were forced into his mindset mainly because of his wife; he did not want her to look down at his as a weak and incapable man


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Macbeth is a perfectionistic person whose soluntion has been highly successful. He precipitates his own psychological crisis by violating his dominant set of shoulds in order to acft out the arrogant-vindicitive trends which are reinforced by his wife. Once he violates his own bargain, he is overwhelmed by fear and self-hate. He tries to cope with his crisis by wholeheartedly embracing the arrogant-vindicitive soluntion, but he cannot really do so, and the result is despair."