Paper 101 : Time and Destiny in ‘Macbeth’
Assignment of paper 101 :Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods
Table of Contents :
Personal Information…………………………………………………………………………………
Assignment Details……………………………………………………………………………………
Abstract………………………….…………………………………………………………………………
Keywords………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………..…
William Shakespeare: A Brief Introduction……………………………………………….…
Macbeth: An Overview………………………………………………………………………………
The Concept of Time in Macbeth……………………………………………………………..…
Prophecy and Fate: The Witches’ Web…………………………………………………………
Macbeth’s Struggle Between Choice and Destiny…………………………………….……
Lady Macbeth: The Urgency of Time………………………………………………………..…
Time, Structure, and Suspense……………………………………………………….……..….
The Philosophical Dimension of Time and Destiny………………………….……...……
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………….……….……
References………………………………………………………………………………….…….………
Personal Information:
Name: Priyanka Nakrani
Batch: M.A. Sem 1 (2025–2027)
Enrollment Number: 5108250023
E-mail Address: priyankanakrani8@gmail.com
Roll Number: 22
Assignment Details:
Topic: Time and Destiny in ‘Macbeth’
Paper & Subject Code: 22392 Paper 101: Literature of the Elizabethan and Restoration Periods
Submitted to: Smt. Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, MKBU, Bhavnagar
Date of Submission: 10th November 2025
Abstract:
This assignment explores the intricate relationship between time and destiny in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, one of the most psychologically complex tragedies in the English canon. The study investigates how Shakespeare transforms time from a mere measure of events into a powerful force that governs fate, ambition, and moral decay. By analyzing key passages, characters, and structural elements, the paper argues that time in Macbeth acts as both a prophetic dimension and a psychological trap, binding Macbeth between free will and predestined doom. Drawing upon critical insights from Lia Codrina Contiu, B. Delaney, and early commentators, the paper reveals how prophecy, suspense, and temporality shape Macbeth’s downfall. The witches’ manipulation of time, Macbeth’s obsession with foreknowledge, and Lady Macbeth’s distortion of temporal order collectively create a world where destiny feels inevitable yet tragically self-made. Ultimately, Shakespeare’s Macbeth portrays time not as a neutral backdrop but as the very engine of tragedy, where every second ticks toward moral and existential collapse.
Keywords:
Time, destiny, prophecy, fate, ambition, tragedy, suspense, free will, Shakespeare, Macbeth.
Time and Destiny in Macbeth
Introduction
In Macbeth, Shakespeare presents time not merely as a chronological flow but as a living force intertwined with human destiny. From the first encounter with the witches to Macbeth’s despairing soliloquy “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” time acts as both tormentor and teacher. The play’s tragic intensity lies in how time shapes Macbeth’s perception of power, choice, and inevitability. Shakespeare uses temporal imagery to explore the tension between fate and free will, between what “must happen” and what “might have been.” As B. Delaney (2004) observes, Macbeth is structured around “the collapse of moral and temporal order,” revealing a world where “time itself conspires with human weakness.”
Time, in this tragedy, becomes Shakespeare’s method of dramatizing destiny. Every prophetic promise, delay, and repetition constructs suspense as if fate itself ticks louder with each act. This assignment explores how Macbeth’s structure, imagery, and psychological depth transform time into the instrument of destiny.
William Shakespeare: A Brief Introduction
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) remains the supreme dramatist of the English Renaissance. His plays, spanning histories, comedies, and tragedies, reflect profound insight into human nature and moral conflict. The Elizabethan age witnessed rapid change political, philosophical, and linguistic and Shakespeare captured its tensions through characters torn between ambition and conscience.
Macbeth, believed to have been written around 1606, reflects both Jacobean political anxiety and metaphysical curiosity. It was likely performed for King James I, whose fascination with witchcraft and divine right of kings infused the play’s atmosphere. Shakespeare’s genius lies in blending personal tragedy with cosmic order, using time as the thread binding human desire to divine consequence.
Macbeth: An Overview
Macbeth tells the story of a Scottish nobleman whose encounter with three witches awakens an insatiable hunger for power. Prophecy and ambition entwine, driving Macbeth to regicide and, ultimately, self-destruction. From the moment the witches proclaim, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”, time becomes the central concern.
The play is a study in psychological temporality of how the mind distorts the present under the weight of future promise. Lia Codrina Contiu (2017) calls time in Macbeth a “tricephalous image” , a three-headed entity representing past, present, and future collapsing into one. This temporal disorientation mirrors Macbeth’s moral decay: he cannot live in the moment because he is haunted by what is yet to come.
The structure of Macbeth reflects this tension. The swift rise and fall of Macbeth’s fortune mimic a clock’s tightening gears each act compressing time, each scene echoing with fatal repetition. The prophecy sets the timer; ambition pulls the trigger.
The Concept of Time in Macbeth
Time governs every movement in Macbeth. The witches introduce it as prophecy, Lady Macbeth manipulates it as opportunity, and Macbeth experiences it as imprisonment. The word “time” appears over 40 times in the play, reflecting its symbolic weight.
Early in the play, Macbeth muses, “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir.” This line captures the paradox of fate and agency: should he act or wait for destiny to unfold? Time here becomes the battlefield between action and patience.
Contiu’s analysis reveals that time in Macbeth operates through paradox: it promises advancement yet delivers decay. Macbeth’s tragedy stems from his attempt to control the uncontrollable. In his desire to “catch” time, he loses it entirely.
The dramatic rhythm reinforces this rapid shift between night and day, haste and delay, prophecy and fulfillment. The temporal instability mirrors Macbeth’s psychological unraveling. As Delaney argues, Shakespeare constructs suspense through “a temporal claustrophobia,” where every act accelerates toward doom.
Prophecy and Fate: The Witches’ Web
The witches embody the supernatural dimension of time; they see the future but speak in riddles. Their prophecy, “All hail, Macbeth, that shall be king hereafter!”, initiates the fatal sequence of events. Yet their words are not commands, only provocations.
According to The Journal of Education (1896), early critics viewed the witches as “voices of destiny,” but modern readings recognize them as mirrors of Macbeth’s own desires. Time, in their hands, is elastic: they show futures without explaining the cost.
Henneman (1908) describes the witches as “agents who awaken time’s darker hour,” suggesting that they reveal rather than invent Macbeth’s fate. Their prophecies, though temporally oriented, depend on Macbeth’s interpretation. Thus, time becomes self-fulfilling, a tragic illusion where belief shapes reality.
The witches’ refrain “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” encapsulates temporal inversion: past and future blur, moral order collapses, and destiny becomes a reflection of human corruption.
Macbeth’s Struggle Between Choice and Destiny
Macbeth’s tragedy is that he knows his fate and yet cannot accept its pace. He becomes obsessed with hastening destiny, seeking shortcuts to the crown. His soliloquy in Act I, Scene 7 “If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well it were done quickly” reveals his anxiety over time’s delay.
He fears inaction more than sin, mistaking speed for control. Delaney (2004) notes that Macbeth’s downfall results from his “temporal impatience” , a refusal to wait for fate’s natural course.
Each murder compresses time further, creating a world of sleeplessness and restlessness. “Methought I heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more!’” signals the death of peaceful time. Macbeth becomes trapped in an eternal present, unable to return to the past or reach the future without dread.
This imprisonment mirrors the human condition: to act is to bind oneself to consequence, to wait is to risk irrelevance. Shakespeare transforms this tension into a poetic meditation on mortality itself.
Lady Macbeth: The Urgency of Time
If Macbeth delays, Lady Macbeth accelerates. Her cry “The future in an instant!” epitomizes her desire to collapse time between thought and deed. She pushes her husband to act “swiftly,” to seize the moment before conscience awakens.
Contiu interprets Lady Macbeth as “the voice of temporal compression,” forcing fate into immediacy. Her manipulation of time mirrors her manipulation of morality. By the time she realizes that time cannot be commanded, madness overtakes her.
The motif of sleeplessness extends to her as well “Out, damned spot!” symbolizing the stain of irreversible time. In her sleepwalking scene, the past invades the present, erasing the boundary between then and now.
Thus, both Macbeths are undone not by fate, but by their war with time and their refusal to let events unfold naturally.
Time, Structure, and Suspense
The structural rhythm of Macbeth reinforces time’s relentless pressure. The play begins with thunder and prophecy and ends with the fulfillment of every foretold outcome. Each act shortens the temporal distance between prediction and realization.
Suspense arises from the waiting gap between what is said and when it happens. As The Journal of Education observed, “Shakespeare’s mastery lies in prolonging the hour before destiny strikes.”
Scenes like Duncan’s arrival at Inverness are laden with irony as the clock ticks toward death, yet everyone speaks of hospitality and peace. This temporal irony deepens the tragedy.
By Act V, time turns against Macbeth. His final soliloquy “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” exposes his recognition that time is meaningless without moral purpose. Henneman (1908) reads this speech as “the exhaustion of destiny,” where time becomes a monotonous cycle leading only to death.
Shakespeare’s manipulation of pacing, repetition, and imagery transforms the play into a temporal spiral, drawing Macbeth and the audience toward inevitable collapse.
The Philosophical Dimension of Time and Destiny
Beyond plot, Macbeth engages with the philosophical question: is destiny predetermined, or self-created through desire?
Macbeth’s fatalism grows as the play progresses. In the beginning, he believes in chance; by the end, he curses the clock. “Time, thou anticipat’st my dread exploits.” His attempt to outpace time only leads to ruin.
Delaney identifies this as the “illusion of temporal mastery” , the belief that man can bend destiny by seizing control of time. Yet Shakespeare shows that moral and cosmic order resist such manipulation.
Contiu’s “tricephalous image of time” helps explain the tragedy: the past (his loyalty), the present (his ambition), and the future (his kingship) collide violently, annihilating his sense of self.
In this way, Shakespeare aligns time with moral consequence each second brings Macbeth closer not just to death, but to understanding. His final courage in facing Macduff is not defiance, but resignation to the truth: that destiny, once set in motion, completes itself through time’s steady hand.
Conclusion
In Macbeth, time is destiny’s shadow invisible yet ever-present. It dictates the rhythm of prophecy, the tempo of ambition, and the inevitability of downfall. Through the witches’ visions, the Macbeth' s impatience, and the unfolding of events, Shakespeare constructs a universe where time is both the playwright and the executioner.
As Contiu shows, the play’s temporal distortions mirror its moral chaos; as Delaney notes, suspense itself becomes a moral device. Shakespeare’s genius lies in making time the true antagonist unseen but unstoppable.
Ultimately, Macbeth teaches that destiny is not decreed by stars or spirits, but by the moment when human will collides with time’s unyielding pace. In chasing the future, Macbeth destroys his present proving that to control time is to lose it forever.
References :
Contiu, Lia Codrina. "Time’s Tricephalous Image in Macbeth by William Shakespeare." Theatrical Colloquia, vol. 7, no. 2, Dec. 2017, pp. 213-222. ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322015717Time'sTricephalousImageinMacbethbyWilliamShakespeare. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
Delaney, B. (2004b). Shakespeare’s MACBETH. The Explicator, 63(1), 6–9. Taylor & Francis Online, https://doi.org/10.1080/00144940409597241. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Project Gutenberg, 1998. www.gutenberg.org/files/1533/1533-h/1533-h.htm. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
“Shakespeare in Recent Years: II. The Themes of Tragedy.” The Sewanee Review, vol. 16, no. 2, 1908, pp. 184–201. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27530896. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025.
“STUDY OF MACBETH.” The Journal of Education, vol. 43, no. 8 (1066), 1896, pp. 126–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44043524. Accessed 3 Nov. 2025. Henneman, John Bell.
Wordcount : 1971
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