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Examples Of Free Will In Macbeth

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Examples Of Free Will In Macbeth
“If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.”(1.2.16-20) So says Macbeth in William Shakespears play by the same name. This quote encompasses a major theme of William Shakespears play, fate versus free will. The purpose of this essay is to prove that free will does trump fate in Shakespears Macbeth.

The above quote is fairly self-explanatory. Macbeth says it after witches tell him that he will be king. He is assuming that since they told him that he will be king, that it is destined to happen, without any further action on his part. However, Macbeth himself later contradicts this when he kills the king in order to assure his own rise to power, and is seen even before that when Duncan names Malcolm the Prince of

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