Macbeth (Vol. 44) | Charles Moseley (essay date 1988)
Charles Moseley (essay date 1988)
SOURCE: "Macbeth's Free Fall," in Critical Essays on Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, edited by Linda Cookson and Bryan Loughrey, Longman Group UK Limited, 1988, pp. 22-34.
[In the essay that follows, Moseley examines the issue of free will versus predestination, arguing that Macbeth is free to choose whether to murder Duncan and free to choose repentance, but once these choices are made his fate becomes inevitable. The critic asserts that Macbeth is fully aware of what he is doing at every stage of his self-destructive progress.]
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!
The Witches'prophecies in I.3 are fulfilled to the letter. Macbeth, almost immediately Thane of Cawdor, is soon king. Banquo would indeed beget kings: James I, early in whose reign the play was...
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