Before Macbeth came to find out about his future, he was an ordinary general serving in the army of Scots led by King Duncan. He was loyal individual led his army to great battles overall emerging winner. However, there are three witches, sisters, who played a major role towards ensuring that Macbeth would pursue his fate. It was through them that Macbeth came to get insights regarding his fate. One day when he was coming from a battle against the Irish he met the three weird sisters who informed him of his fate. He was told that he would become the Thane of Cawdor, King of Scotland and that his descendants would rule after him as kings: “hail to thee Thane Glamis/hail to thee Thane of Cawdor/ All hail Macbeth that shalt be king hereafter (Rowe, 2011). He became skeptical about the information conveyed but when King Duncan informs him that he would become the new Thane of Cawdor is when Macbeth believes the whole prophecy and he proceed to conquer his future.
After King Duncan executes the former Than of Cawdor, Macbeth is sworn as the successor to the position. He is elated by the new position that he starts to be filled with an insane urge for power. Killing is not an issue since he was an army person and would eliminate anyone who would get in the way of his future. He decides to pursue his fate instead of waiting for nature to take its course as with every other fate. After he had been ordained as the Thane of Cawdor, he remembered that his next step was becoming the King of Scotland thus, his obstacle towards the position was the current king, King Duncan. With a little influence from his wife Lady Macbeth, and his ambition he goes on and eliminates King Duncan, “come thick night and pall thee in the dun nest smoke of hell.” (Rowe, 2011). To ensure that his tracks are untraceable and that his son would not inherit the seat he frames the murder on Duncan’s son Malcom who later exiles himself for fear of his life.
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After becoming the king, Macbeth remembers that when the prophecy was being told, Banquo was with him. When Banquo recalled the prophecy by the witches, he now becomes suspicious that King Macbeth might have pushed his fate by killing King Duncan “in charge of outrunning the pauser, reason …” (Rowe, 2011). It is for this reason that King Macbeth now feels threatened of his position. To ensure that his fate would come to pass, King Macbeth decides to eliminate Banquo. He proceeds on to hire three mercenaries who would kill both Banquo and his son, Fleance since he fears that Banquo son might take over the throne, “the seeds of Banquo kings…” (Rowe, 2011). However, the murders managed to kill Banquo but failed to kill Fleance. This excerpt highlights how Macbeth was thirsty for power and through his tyrannical moves he went to the extent of killing his friend.
Macbeth thirst does not end there as he seeks witches counselling again on a random visit. The witches recognize his heinous acts, “Something wicked this way comes,” (Rowe, 2011) but proceeds on to tell him of his future. The witches show him three apparitions; first was an armored head telling Macbeth to beware of Macduff, the second was a bloody baby advising him to be bold and brave, and the third was a crowned child with a tree on its hand. He then decides to kill Macduff’s wife and son. Macduff is infuriated by Macbeth’s move and raises an army with the aid of King of Edward. King Macbeth was not scared as he had initially thought him invincible. However, when he saw the soldiers carrying branches of Birman Wood, he got a little scared but remembered the words of the second apparition that no man born of a woman would kill him “none of woman born shall harm Macbeth…” (Rowe, 2011). He heads on to the battle, but Macduff reminds him that he was not born of a woman but ripped out of his mother womb. It was then that he was slain by Macduff and became a tragic hero.
Reference
Rowe, K. (2011) Macbeth: Evans Shakespeare Editions . Cengage Learning
