Essay On Self Control In Macbeth

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“Macbeth engages in self-refashioning that amounts to sabotage committed upon himself ” (Willis). He even says in act three of the play “my strange and self abuse.” So was Macbeth really a victim of his own fate? Macbeth was in complete control of his actions, but by knowing his future and with the influence of others thinks only he can make it come true.
One of the main and understated relationships in the play is that between Macbeth and the witches. Their relationship is one of a peculiar and trusting nature. It is implied from the beginning that Macbeth is very reliant on the witches and is confident in them and everything they say, but we don’t really know why. Macbeth places his hope and trust in the witches because their predictions
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He is persuaded into believing that he is the only one that can make the predictions of the witches come true. “Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal” (1.5.) Lady Macbeth tells him that fate alone cannot make things happen for him she makes him feel like the only way for him to carry out his destiny as king is for him to induce it himself. When he begins his plan to take the throne with the murder of Duncan he starts to feel guilt for these feelings that have now surfaced from inside him. But then we see his mind is changed and he goes through with the murder showing us he is in control of his actions. After his first murder he begins to kill out of fear and paranoia. Banquo is killed because of the prophecy that his children will become kings and Macbeth doesn’t want that to happen. He then has Macduff’s family killed because he feels that they are becoming suspicious of him for the murder of King Duncan. Macbeth’s ambition also plays a major factor in the way things play out. He tells us in act 1 of the play before the death of Duncan “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o 'erleaps itself and falls on th ' other (1.7.26-29). Here, he means he has nothing but his ambition moving him forward and sometimes that ambition makes him do things he doesn’t mean to do. “Ambition needs no spurs, it leaps of itself unprompted” (Willis). So here we can observe the mix of emotions that Macbeth feels throughout the play, but in the conclusion we see that ambition has won and Macbeth has killed numerous people leading to his own

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