This essay examines the idea of fate in Shakespeare's play Macbeth, and attempts to show that the characters acted of their own free will, not due to the wishes of some higher being.

Fate as most people think of it cannot exist. "Fate" suggests that there is one way that a situation is going to unfold, and nothing you can do will change the way it unfolds. Instead, there are always several "fates;" the one that eventually comes about depends on choices you make along the way. Sometime in hindsight it looks like that outcome is the only one that could have happened, or the best one that …

…Macduff, instead of focusing on the prophesized removal of Macbeth from the throne, wanted to kill Macbeth, and so he did. Ultimately, in Macbeth, Shakespeare shows Macbeth as a character who fulfills his future as predicted by the instruments of fate, the witched. He does indeed act in the manner that has been prophesized, but he does so of his own free will, not because any outside force wishes him to act as he does.