Is fate real in the play Macbeth, and are the witches the fates, or do the witches the fates simply know to much as agents of evil?
Fate is definitely real in Macbeth, but it involves what is known as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Macbeth receives information from the witches that one day he would become king, instead of waiting for fate or destiny to make him king, he takes matters into his own hands, kills the current king, damning his two sons with suspicion of having killed their father, and ends up getting crowned King of Scotland. “The witches, through their ambiguous prophecies, represent a supernatural power that introduces evil into Macbeth. Their equivocations—the intentional stating of half-truths—conceal the sinister nature of their predictions, and Macbeth does not consider the possibility that they are trying to deceive him.” The witches are agents of evil, making mischief at Macbeth’s expense, toying with his human frailties, watching him drown in his own ambition, wallow in over confidence as he destroys the very fabric of nature in Scotland. “The Weird Sisters themselves do not have the power to enac
