Themes are unifying ideas derived from the characteristic of human nature and its impact on the society. The renowned playwright Shakespeare, in his play Macbeth exemplifies societies interpretation of an antagonist and discusses the complexity of evil. He ironically juxtaposes, 2 opposing ideas of fate and free will by playing puppet master with the character of Macbeth, dangling his fate in front of him, although flaws in his own character cause him to suffer his foreshadowed fate. This text will further explore the controversies of fate vs free will and the complexity of evil.
Is fate the main control force of life or are we responsible for our own actions?
In Macbeth, a common controversial theory argued is, whether Macbeth is puppet controlled by the force of fate or doomed by his own actions, free will. The malevolent force of the witches exploits Macbeth’s flaws in character, engendering his internal state of being, from the start of the play. The phrase “weird” derives from Elizabethan times meaning fate, which is constantly used to address the witches, associating them with the power of toying with human destiny. The true nature of the witches is ambiguous, although, through the use of the rhyming couplets, “though his bark cannot be lost, yet it shall be tempest-tossed”, we can set them aside from normal characters. As seen in the synecdoche, ‘tempest-tossed’, the witches are plotting revenge against a sailor as puppeteers making his…show more content… In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, a sense of realism is lacking, as reality is masked by appearance. A prominent, foreshadowing paradox used by the witches “fair is foul and foul is fair”, overtly differentiates appearance from reality provoking a sense of equivocation and fear from the unknown. A motif repeated constantly in the play, is the sense of masking the reality as evident in, “look like the innocent flower but be the serpent under”. The use of
