Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s Entanglement with Fate and Human Agency

There have been plays written by William Shakespeare that share a great deal in common with the opening moments of Macbeth. What makes Macbeth a more unique play than other stories of notable figures in war, like Henry V, is the interjection of the three Weird Sisters. Their prophesying of Macbeth’s future is the jumping off point for the play’s action, primarily influencing the decisions of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The latter’s speech about her plan to convince her husband to murder King Duncan so he will receive kingship presents the idea that fate must be acted upon by one’s own free will and is a catalyst that calls his Macbeth’s ambition into action.

Lady Macbeth’s monologue follows her reception of Macbeth’s letter that explains the witches’ prophecy and his subsequent promotion to thane of Cawdor. Her speech begins, “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is full o’ th’ milk of human kindness…art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” (I.v.15-33.) This speech, a focal point of the tension between fate and human agency serves as an analysis of Macbeth’s nature and Lady Macbeth’s plot to remedy what she sees as the one impediment to ultimate power for them both.

Among the most notable aspects of this particular monologue is that it is the first time Shakespeare makes direct reference to the concept of destiny in Macbeth. Fearing that Macbeth will not do what it takes to become king, Lady Macbeth cites fate as her speech concludes with the remark, “Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem to have thee crowned withal.” In this particular line, Lady Macbeth is referencing both fate and the supernatural powers of the witches encountered by Macbeth. She understands that, because of the prophecy delivered by the weird sisters, Macbeth’s fate is to become the king and this is destined to happen because the higher powers of predetermined fates and the elements of the supernatural exhibited by the witches have not only said that Macbeth will become king, but Lady Macbeth feels they also want Macbeth to be king. At the beginning of the monologue, Lady Macbeth addresses the fact that Macbeth has received the titles of thane of Glamis and Cawdor and therefore, he is “promised” the title of king. Since Macbeth has fulfilled two elements of the prophecy, the idea that he is fated to achieve the third becomes an infallible one for Lady Macbeth.

As dictated by the Oxford English Dictionary, “fate” is defined in its third entry, originating from 1374, as “what a person is fated to do or suffer.” The idea of suffering is an often unexamined angle of fate. Macbeth is initially believes the witches’ prophecy is wholly beneficial as he takes no issue with his impending future as king, but he does not account for the intense bouts of suffering with which he will be forced to grapple. However, the fact that Macbeth takes it upon himself to bring about his fate results in the pain wrought on the Macbeths; his own human agency becomes much more influential in determining the future of his life and rank than the preconceived notions of what he would accomplish.

Interestingly, while Lady Macbeth believes in destiny and the prophecy’s validity, she does not trust the idea that a higher power will implement what has been proclaimed to be fated. Instead, she laments the large amount of doubt she harbors within herself towards Macbeth, as evidenced by when she says, “What thou wouldst highly, that wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false, and yet wouldst wrongly win.” In this portion of the passage, Lady Macbeth is contradicting herself because she claims that Macbeth is undeniably fated to be king, but then asserts that while Macbeth wants to be king, he is not necessarily deserving of the title and to become the ruler would be morally wrong for him. This furthers the tension between the concepts of fate and human agency because Lady Macbeth believes her husband is fated to be king, but as he is undeserving of such a title, he is going to have to act on it himself, taking the kingship for his own. Interestingly, it is this very act that makes Macbeth unworthy.

Perhaps the biggest dividing line between fate and human agency comes when Lady Macbeth uses her own intuition to understand what is currently going through Macbeth’s mind before attempting a metaphysical method of communication to will her husband to promptly return home so she can influence him to seize the title of king before his good nature consumes him and transforms the quality of patience into a noble, revered one. She declares, “Thou’ld’st have, great Glamis, that which cries, ‘Thus thou must do,’ if thou have it, and that which rather thou dost fear to do, than wishest should be undone. Hie thee hither, that I may pour my spirits in thine ear and chastise with the valor of my tongue all that impedes thee from the golden round.” The crux of these statements is that Macbeth really does want to be king, but Lady Macbeth is inordinately apprehensive due to all of the surrounding factors that might cause Macbeth to balk at the opportunity to genuinely become the king. She is concerned that Macbeth is too kind-hearted, weak, and fearful to commit to murdering King Duncan, the act that she sees as the only path for Macbeth’s reign to commence. While Lady Macbeth does believe in maintaining faith in the witches and the prophecy, she also believes that the only way to turn faith in fate into results is the aforementioned notion of human agency. Another matter presented by Lady Macbeth that complicates Macbeth’s forthcoming rule is her belief that Macbeth would be content to wait for his ascension to the throne to be completed for him without putting any effort in himself. If Lady Macbeth truly believed in the concept of fate, she would be content to wait patiently for power as Macbeth allegedly plans to do. Instead, she implores Macbeth to hurry  home so she can inject herself into the situation, hoping to convincing Macbeth to use his own ambition (which she acknowledges is not lacking within her husband) to act upon the prophecy foretold to him by the weird sisters.

This analysis on Lady Macbeth’s intensely conflicting thoughts can lead to a wide array of conclusions on the proverbial game of tug of war that is being waged between fate and human agency in Macbeth. First, it must be established what exactly it was that Macbeth was pursuing. His fate, as prophesied by the three weird sisters, was predetermined by the external and supernatural forces that characterized the witches to be that he would become king. However, while this was innately true to Macbeth’s situation, the circumstances leading Macbeth to procuring the crown were never dictated by the witches. His choices for the manner by which he would become king was boundless with the two most prominent, as set forth by Lady Macbeth, portrayed to be waiting and trusting his own destiny or using his own human agency to accelerate the process. Because it was fate, the fact that Macbeth becomes king is not contemptible, but rather the actions he takes to achieve this title (murdering King Duncan) are reprehensible, as it was never part of the witches’ prophecy. By this logic, it can be inferred by the reader that fate is secure and unmoving; it cannot be altered in any form and certainly not by its subject. Additionally, it is concluded from Lady Macbeth’s monologue that fate is a catalyst for ambition, in that it is used to evoke the ambitious nature of Macbeth when his fate is made known to him, but doubly so when it is made known to Lady Macbeth. If Macbeth was never aware of his destiny, his status quo would have never been disrupted and the idea of being king would likely not have entered his head; the promotion to thane of Cawdor would have been ambition enough for him. Because of this, the prophecy and Lady Macbeth’s desire to fulfill it as soon as possible prompts Macbeth to direct his ambition to gaining ultimate power. The prophecy is essentially ineffectual from this point on because Macbeth ensures that he becomes responsible for his fate’s manifestation.

Even more influential for Macbeth than merely knowing that the prophecy exists is Lady Macbeth’s own human agency in prompting him to act upon his newfound fate. It is impossible to know the answer to any hypothetical outcome, but it can be strongly argued that it would have never dawned on Macbeth to murder King Duncan, with whom he shared a mutual trust, were it not for his wife’s emasculation and prodding of him. It is likely that Macbeth would have been perfectly content to allow his life to play out as if he had never heard his prophecy, but the more ambitious of the couple, Lady Macbeth, decides to take matters into her own hands; her human agency became the primary strain of fate as she essentially provided Macbeth’s fate for him while the witches merely gave the knowledge of his fate.

There is no doubt that the prophecy of the three weird sisters in Macbeth lead to a great deal of suffering for the soon-to-be Scottish king. Never before in Shakespeare has “ignorance is bliss” been so applicable in terms of the path on which Macbeth regrettably embarks. Perhaps Lady Macbeth was correct in her chastising of Macbeth as a spineless figure because he was influenced more by those close to him and those foreign than by himself. In a sense, Macbeth’s fate became controlled by everyone except himself, even if he was the one who wielded the dagger used to murder King Duncan.

Image Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art