Role of Choice in Macbeth for Banquo - myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theRole of Choice in Macbeth for Banquo. Answer: In every individuals life their own choices make great impact and lead them either to success or to ruin. In Shakespeares Macbeth, the protagonist faces his tragic consequences due to his poor choices merged with his illegitimate ambition. Not only Macbeth, the poor decisions had negative affects in all the characters of the tragedy. Throughout the drama, Macbeths wrong decisions and poor choices led him to tragic downfall. From the very beginning, the premonitions of the witches had engulfed him and guided him to self-destruction. The witches predicted for Macbeth as well as Banquo but their vision of future influenced the emotion of Macbeth more intensely than that of Banquo. Their premonitions coupled with Macbeths ambition drove him irresistible to secure the throne. With notable influence from Lady Macbeth, he attempted to fulfill his desire to gain more power, fame, wealth and honor. This made Macbeth to end up with murdering King Duncan and chooses the path of violence and des truction. After becoming the king he feels insecure and suspicious. He is instigated by his dangerous quality and eliminates the threat that he suspected to come from Banquos side. The weird sisters premonition that Banquos heirs will succeed him induced Macbeth to kill both Banquo and his son. As the audience already knows that he was so insecure and frustrated, he again visited the witches. More prophecies made him more diffident as well as frustrated. The inner realization of guilt and suppressed indignation resulted in hallucination that can be found in dagger scene and banquet scene. To tame his own anxieties he tried to seek help of the prophecies but those instigated him more rather than pacifying him. Macbeth chose the path of blood and violence that ultimately led to his demise. At this point, Macbeth, whether he is a victim of fate or his ambition responsible for his demise may ignite the audience. Some researchers say that Macbeths fate has the upper hand on his destruction because he never schemed to become the King. Macbeth was fully unknown to magic and mystical powers. To these researches, the supernatural forces were the driving force under which Macbeth and Banquo operated. Every choice that Macbeth made, took him to fulfill prophesies. On the other hand, some researchers believe that the choice and ambition controlled Macbeths path. The weird sisters were aware about the manipulation of false illusion that influences people to take certain decisions. Therefore, the witches never prophesied Macbeth to kill Duncan but just said, "all hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! He might have wait for the fate to act but he chose the wrong path to fulfill the prophecies. It was his own free will that convinced him to quench his ambition. It can be concluded that fate and choice are entwined with each other in this tragedy. Macbeths decisions were based on his blind belief on fate that forced him to make destructive choices. Therefore, choice has the upper hand for his dreadful demise.