Personally, I believe the events in my life have been guided by fate. The small choices I make in my everyday life lead to where I am ultimately supposed to be in my life. As a Christian, I think that God has a set plan in my life and everything I do will be a result of that. Based on the text and my personal intuition, I believe Shakespeare's attitude towards fate is similar. After Macbeth receives the Weird Sister's prophecy of him becoming King saying, "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!", his weak, pushover attitude changes into a stronger, willing attitude (Act 1, Scene 3, Line 51). Because Macbeth heard that he was going to be King, he decided he wanted to make sure that happened. Personally, I believe that Macbeth murdering King Duncan was part of his prophecy. The Weird Sisters said that he would become King, but they did not say how he would get to that point. I think that it was inevitable for him to be King and his choices would have gotten him there eventually.
This can also be supported by Macbeth's attempt to have Banquo and Fleance killed. The Weird Sisters also said to Banquo, "thou shalt get kings, though thou be none," meaning that his descendants (the first being Fleance) would be kings (Act 1, Scene 3, Line 68). So while Macbeth tries to make sure Fleance cannot take his crown, Fleance escapes from the murderers - in accordance to the prophecy - as one of the murderers tells Macbeth, "Most royal sir, Fleance is 'scaped," (Act 3, Scene 4, Line 21). This exemplifies how although it was Macbeth's will and action to try and kill Fleance, the fate that the Weird Sisters prophesied was unchangeable.
