Was MacBeth responsible for his act of violence or was he made to do Essay

Was MacBeth responsible for his act of violence or was he made to do it - Essay Example This being the case, the play should be viewed as attempting to teach a moral as opposed to the futility of individual choice because of fate. In the third scene of the first act, the witches appear to Macbeth and Banquo. They say to him â€Å"All hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!/ All Hail Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!/All Hail Macbeth; that shalt be king hereafter!† (48-50). They also inform Banquo that he will not be king, but his sons will be kings. This is the event that the other events surrounding the play are a result of. Macbeth is in fact the Thane of Cawdor at the time, but he does not heard about Glamis until the end of the scene. Since this prediction comes true, he assumes that the prediction about his becoming king will also come true. The first thing to consider is that they did not tell him that he had to murder Duncan in order to become king. Their prediction turned out to be true, and Macbeth did not personally have to take any action in order for it to do so. Therefore, there is nowhere inherent in the information that he receives that tells him that he has to murder the king ; he might have become king with no foul play involved. Also, we should consider that Banquo was told that his sons would become kings, and yet he did not take any action to make this happen. The weird sisters merely gave him Macbeth information; they did not tell him what to do or force him into doing anything. In their descriptions of what they were doing before the scene started, they give accounts that imply that they had the sort of power that would be capable of placing spell on Macbeth that would force him to do what they wanted. However, as we see no scenes in which that takes place, we must assume that Macbeth acts upon his own free will. Upon hearing the news about the prediction of the weird sisters and the fact