Rex
Heather
Humanity9
5/31/15
Final drift
The
tension between fate and free will has provided fodder for human debate all
through time. When people need to make some choices, they get confused. No one
can prove that fate exists. What happens to us is either our own doing, or
coincidence. However, you can only make one choice at any moment, you never get
to see the other road. In the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare,
Macbeth changed his way from following the fates to fighting against fate.
Therefore although the fate seemed to control Macbeth’s life and the word of
Witch’s changed Macbeth thoughts, in fact, his own personal choice makes him
fall.
Macbeth believes the witches and he thinks the
word from the witches is his fate. After the great battle fighting against with
the enemy, the witches came to Macbeth. They told he wound be the Thane of
Glamis, the Thane of Cawdor and the future king. At first, Macbeth didn’t
believe them and he knew he had already gotten the Thane of Glamis from his
father, but he started to think and hope the other things might happen. Also
after Ross brought the title of thane of Cawdor to Macbeth, Macbeth seemed get
more support for his ambition and started to believe witches and fall
into the big dream. However, he had a choice about
believing witches, just like Banquo. Banquo gave his advice to Macbeth, “The
agents of evil often tell us part of the truth in order to lead us to our
destruction. They earn our trust by telling us the truth about little things,
but then they betray us when it will damage us the most.” In Banquo’s idea,
witches were trying to earn Macbeth’s trust and wound damage him the most.
Although Banquo gave his advice, Macbeth didn’t accept it. He wrote a letter to
his wife, Lady Macbeth to tell her everything about witches, especially
noticing Lady Macbeth will be the queen. “I thought I should tell you this news,
my dearest partner in greatness, so that you could rejoice along with me about
the greatness that is promised to us.” Thus, all the evidence make it clear
that Macbeth really wanted to make this fate happen with a strong emotion.
Everything
seemed to go well. Macbeth’s fate appeared and then Macbeth was following his
fate. But in fact, Macbeth was acting with free will, in control himself and
making fate happen when it was good for him. He knew the fate which was bad for
him, but he chose to continue “Bad deeds force you to commit more bad deeds. So
please, come with me,” he said to Lady Macbeth. Macbeth followed his own free
will, not only because of the encouragement from Lady Macbeth, but also from
his heart. When he heard Malcolm is now the prince of Cumberland, he was
hesitating about whether or not to step over him or give up. Finally, he
decided to step over him. He says “Stars, hide your light
so no one can see the terrible desires within me. I won’t let my eye look at
what my hand is doing, but in the end I’m still going to do that thing I’d be
horrified to see.” In other words, he imagines he must kill the king in order
to make his fate favorable again. Also Lady Macbeth encouraged Macbeth to act more
with free will. When Macbeth felt guilty to kill The King Duncan, she said “A
little water will wash away the evidence of our guilt. It’s so simple! You’ve
lost your resolve.” She thought it was very easy to wash her guilt just like
using water to wash hands. Both of the encouragement from Lady Macbeth and
Macbeth’s heart showed Macbeth actually followed his own desires.
Macbeth followed his own desires instead
of fate. His ambition was never satisfied. He was worried about being taken the
King title away from others. After he became the King, Macbeth didn’t feel
satisfied at all. “To be the king is nothing if I’m not safe as the king. I’m
very afraid of Banquo.” He knew the fate from Witches about Banquo, “Your
descendants will be kings, even though you will not be one.” Macbeth wanted his
own descendants to be kings, not Banquo’s descendants, so he started to fight
against the fate. He sent three murders to kill Banquo and his son. Then Macbeth
kept killing to consolidate his throne. After he heard Macduff had fled to England,
Macbeth said “From now on, as soon as I decide to do something I’m going to act
immediately. In fact, I’ll start following up my thoughts with actions right
now. He got crazy about his ambition and lost all patience with fate. He knew
somebody will be the future king instead of his family. After he heard his
wife, Lady Macbeth passed away and the prediction of his death came true, Macbeth
still did not give up. He said, “My confidence is failing. I’m starting to
doubt the lies the devil told me, which sounded like truth. ……I’m starting to
grow tired of living, and I’d like to see the world plunged into chaos. Ring
the alarms! Blow, wind! Come, ruin! At least we’ll die with our armor on.” Thus
he fought against his fate and followed his free will until he died. During his
life, even though he was hesitated and lost before, he finally found his way to
follow his free will to live or die. He’s been following his free will all
along during his life, but he finally died without honor, love, obedience, and
loyal friends.
Fate and free
will has been a topic for human debate for a very long time. The reason of
people discuss this topic for a long time are human rights and personal choices.
It seems people created “fate” to describe things and choices that can’t be
controlled by human. Fate has some scientific truth about it. Traditional
Mechanism thinks when the universe initially has identified, the corresponding
result naturally defines. For example, throwing a dice, although it has not
landed, but the results have actually decided by the speed, angle, wind speed,
temperature and so on. Whether dice, stars or human thoughts and feelings all
be constrained by the variety of physical and chemical laws. All of these are
from the basic requirements at the time of universe identified. However, the
side of against Fate also has some scientific truth. Quantum mechanics thinks
future are unknown and unpredictable, and the future is definitely more than
one. The results of Quantum mechanics idea are shaking the relationship between
human and nature and have become nothing by chance. According to the both sides
have their own truths to support them, we still can’t say fate identifies or
not. Only we can do is try to make them good for us. So we should find the
balance between fate and free will. Don’t believe the fate too much and do not
follow your own free will too much.
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