Fate and Free Will Life is like a game of cards. The hand one is dealt is determinism; the way one plays it is free will. In William Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Macbeth is told he will be king one day. He then has to decide if he has to make his own fate by killing the king, or let nature take its course. It is Macbeth’s own free will to kill the king, showing that fate could be permitted but it’s one’s free will on how it shall be reached. The problem of fate and free will is also seen in today’s world. Such as a group of Harvard students to be declined admission for having an offensive private group chat named “Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens.” Another instance of this happening was to a football player named Laremy Tunsil.
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In Macbeth, Macbeth is a successful Scottish general and who becomes the Thane of Cawdor. He one day receives a prophecy from encountering three witches who say, “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” (I,iii, 53). Because of this, Macbeth becomes engrossed by ambition and acquiesced in his wife’s strong desire for power. Subsequent to this event, Macbeth is vacillating between if he should wait for time to take its course, saying “If chance will have me king, why, chance may/crown me,/Without my stir” (I.iii.157-159) or if he should take matters in his own hands and follow his wife’s scheme to kill the King. It is evident at this point in the story that Macbeth does consider waiting and shows chivalry to his King. However, Macbeth falls to vice and murders his King, indulging him in guilt and regret. He shows this to readers saying, “Had I died an hour before this chance,/ I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant/ there’s nothing serious in mortality./ All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead./ The wine of life is drawn , and the mere lees/ Is left this vault to brag of” (II,iii,68-73), displaying how if he could go back in time and not kill Duncan he would. This shows how Macbeth got closer to his fate by his own free will to kill the king, yet he’ll never know if that was the way to achieve it. Later in the story, Macbeth goes back to the three witches and …show more content…
In today’s world there are many stories local or viral that express this lesson. For example, multiple young students had gotten accepted into Harvard University, one of the most prestigious colleges in America with an acceptance rate of less than six percent. They had been declined entree and “...all it took was a Facebook group titled “Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens” to lead to at least 10 accepted students kicked out—before they even set foot in Harvard Yard” (Wang). This shows how something they thought no one would ever see ended up ruining their future as a Harvard student and an amazing opportunity. How could a tiny private group chat do so much damage? To emphasize, the group chat was created to post vulgar memes and jokes including “child abuse, sexual assault, racism, and the Holocaust” (Wang). The jokes were reported to Harvard by a student within the group chat who had thought it had been taken too far. This goes to show how the students thought that since it was private, no one would ever know and it wouldn’t have affected their admission to Harvard. The University was judged for this decision as some saw it was unfair to the students but “In a time when campuses are paying more attention than ever to cultural sensitivity and the idea of academic “safe spaces,” it’s clear that actions on social media, however private, are not exempt from scrutiny” (Ward). This is now a prime example of why it is so
In Macbeth, Macbeth is a successful Scottish general and who becomes the Thane of Cawdor. He one day receives a prophecy from encountering three witches who say, “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” (I,iii, 53). Because of this, Macbeth becomes engrossed by ambition and acquiesced in his wife’s strong desire for power. Subsequent to this event, Macbeth is vacillating between if he should wait for time to take its course, saying “If chance will have me king, why, chance may/crown me,/Without my stir” (I.iii.157-159) or if he should take matters in his own hands and follow his wife’s scheme to kill the King. It is evident at this point in the story that Macbeth does consider waiting and shows chivalry to his King. However, Macbeth falls to vice and murders his King, indulging him in guilt and regret. He shows this to readers saying, “Had I died an hour before this chance,/ I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant/ there’s nothing serious in mortality./ All is but toys. Renown and grace is dead./ The wine of life is drawn , and the mere lees/ Is left this vault to brag of” (II,iii,68-73), displaying how if he could go back in time and not kill Duncan he would. This shows how Macbeth got closer to his fate by his own free will to kill the king, yet he’ll never know if that was the way to achieve it. Later in the story, Macbeth goes back to the three witches and …show more content…
In today’s world there are many stories local or viral that express this lesson. For example, multiple young students had gotten accepted into Harvard University, one of the most prestigious colleges in America with an acceptance rate of less than six percent. They had been declined entree and “...all it took was a Facebook group titled “Harvard memes for horny bourgeois teens” to lead to at least 10 accepted students kicked out—before they even set foot in Harvard Yard” (Wang). This shows how something they thought no one would ever see ended up ruining their future as a Harvard student and an amazing opportunity. How could a tiny private group chat do so much damage? To emphasize, the group chat was created to post vulgar memes and jokes including “child abuse, sexual assault, racism, and the Holocaust” (Wang). The jokes were reported to Harvard by a student within the group chat who had thought it had been taken too far. This goes to show how the students thought that since it was private, no one would ever know and it wouldn’t have affected their admission to Harvard. The University was judged for this decision as some saw it was unfair to the students but “In a time when campuses are paying more attention than ever to cultural sensitivity and the idea of academic “safe spaces,” it’s clear that actions on social media, however private, are not exempt from scrutiny” (Ward). This is now a prime example of why it is so