Macbeth: Witches Influence on Macbeth's Decisions

In the Shakespearean play, “Macbeth,” the witches influence on how Macbeth made his choices played a vital element in contributing to his eventual destruction. The witches have been attempting to generate chaos by prophesying to Macbeth in order to get him to act. They planted the seed of evil in Macbeth’s head that grew to dominate his mind. But it was Macbeth who made the selections that determined his fate. He was not forced to kill Duncan nor any of his other victims. But after he murdered Duncan, Macbeth lost his sanity. The witches had been easily in a position to handle his thoughts. They made him believe that he was invincible, and then he willingly continued to fight when he knew that it would imply his doom. Macbeth’s downfall was planned by the weird sisters, but it was Macbeth’s own cost-free will that lead him to it.

The 3 witches named the weird sisters are the root of the dilemma that is the topic for this story. The weird sisters are creators of chaos by nature. They associate with evil spirits and obey them, and they are followers of the evil goddess, Hecate. In the play the witches, with their spells, strategy the downfall of Macbeth.

They can't straight harm him themselves, so they tell Macbeth predictions for his achievable future, in order to make him act on them. The witches inform Macbeth that he will turn out to be the thane of Cawdor and then king of Scotland. They poison his thoughts with these prophesies, making him greedy and bringing out the evil qualities in his soul. When the initial of the promises is established genuine, Macbeth then considers the thought of murdering Duncan for the very first time. This is his very first step on the journey to his demise, as the witches had planned.

The 3 witches’ program succeeded, they had aroused the greed in Macbeth, permitting him to make the most essential choice of the play – to kill Duncan. Macbeth does not effortlessly make this decision. In fact, at very first he decides against it, but, with the expertise that he could be king, he could not aid himself from considering it. Following constant persuasion from Lady Macbeth, she and Macbeth ultimately produced their decision. Lady Macbeth would load Duncan’s attendants with liquor, and then, on Lady Macbeth’s signal, Macbeth would creep into Duncan’s chamber and slay him with his servant’s weapons.

This act surges Macbeth forward on the direct path to his destruction. Afterwards, when Duncan is found dead, Macbeth kills again when he murders the servants who had been guarding Duncan. Claiming he acted in rage Macbeth kills the servants so that they can't bear witness against him. Macbeth’s greed had taken control of him and he could not turn back. It only took the one thought embedded into Macbeth’s head to lead him toward corruption.

After Macbeth grows far more sinful and overpowered with greed he does not make any true try to change, and his conscious is bothered by this. Gradually Macbeth loses grasp of his sanity and self-handle. Becoming consumed with energy, Macbeth lets nothing stand in the way of his reign, since his reign is all that he has left now. Macbeth’s malevolence and deceptiveness are shown additional when he becomes so obsessed with the witches prophesies to his friend, Banquo, that he decides to hire two guys to kill him and his son. It is not long prior to Macbeth’s own ruthlessness begins to disturb him, greatly. He suffers from troubled sleep, nightmares and loss of appetite, and he is going insane. At a banquet in his castle Macbeth envisions Banquo’s ghost and offers a terrified reaction in front of his guests. Also since Macduff does not attend the banquet and flees to England, Macbeth, in anger, decides to have his household murdered. Later in the play Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth, “I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far, that, must I wade no much more, / Returning have been as tedious as go o’er.” This remark paints the image of Macbeth swimming in a sea of blood, possessing proceeded so far that it is easier to continue than to go back. Macbeth has lost hope. With regret, he feels that he is past the point of no return, he has sinned so brutally and severely that he is unable to atone for it.

Now that the witches have succeeded in bringing out Macbeth’s evil qualities, they are ready to finish their plot and make certain that Macbeth follows his destiny to his downfall. With Hecate’s guidance, the witches strategy to lead Macbeth to his death by producing him feel overconfident. Macbeth goes to seek the witches in a dark cave. When he finds them, they present him with three apparitions. The initial apparition appears as an armed head that says, “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! beware Macduff / Beware the thane of Fife.” The second apparition is a bloody kid that tells Macbeth, “Be bloody, bold, and resolute laugh to scorn / The energy of man, for none born of lady / Shall harm Macbeth.” Ultimately the third apparition, in the form of a kid with a crown on his head, holding a tree, tells Macbeth that he “Shall never vanquished be till Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him.” Macbeth now feels assured that he can not be killed due to the fact he assumes that all people are born of a woman, and it is not possible for a forest to move. He could never have guessed that the apparitions meant that Macduff did not have a natural birth and that the English would use trees as camouflage. This false self-confidence Macbeth was offered was really essential to permit him to make his final decisions that resulted in his defeat.

The apparitions made an impact on Macbeth and he acts foolishly because of them. When he is told that Macduff has fled to England, Macbeth, in fury, orders his family members murdered. This only strengthens Macduff’s wish to confront and kill Macbeth. When Macbeth ultimately realizes that he has been deceived by the witches his overconfidence turns into arrogance. A messenger reports to Macbeth that it appears that Birnam Wood is moving toward Dunsinane, as the apparitions had warned Macbeth it would. But Macbeth now is too determined to fight than to retreat, so he orders his soldiers to attack. On the battlefield he feels trapped. But at the very same time nevertheless, he clings to the prophesy that he can not by killed by any individual born of a woman. When Macbeth is finally confronted by Macduff, Macduff explains that he was delivered by caesarian section and thus, technically, not born. Now Macbeth completely understands the deception of the witches and realizes that he destined to die here. But when he is provided the possibility to live he does not take it, he would rather die than reside in shame. By cost-free will, regardless of knowing that he would most likely die, Macbeth fights Macduff, and is slain.

It was Macbeth’s totally free will, with the influence of the witches prophesies that determined his destiny. Macbeth chose to kill Duncan, chose to kill his servants, Banquo, and Macduff’s family members, and chose to fight to his death. And he was not forced to do so, he took each and every step on the path to his destruction by option. Even even though Macbeth seemed to have a predetermined fate, I don’t think that he was bound to it. I consider he could have selected to break away from the direction he was heading at anytime, but just merely did not havethe willpower.