No Roles, No Estate Fate, nature, and identity: in MacBeth, Shakespeare brews these three factors together in a boiling cauldron to demonstrate the dark side of the nature of mankind. MacBeth, initially a loyal general in Duncan’s army, becomes a mad, arrogant tyrant as a result of listening to prophesies of his future – or more specifically, his soon-to-become titles. His prior knowledge of his new titles elicits the inconspicuous avarice within MacBeth, which in return envelops Scotland into disorder and disease. Had he never obtained the ambition to promote his own role as king, Scotland could have remained the way it was under Duncan’s gentle rule; the absence of malicious intent – which had caused the deaths of Duncan, Banquo, and MacDuff’s family – would have most certainly created a different, possibly peaceful, alternative in the direction of destiny. Perhaps Shakespeare may be attempting to demonstrate the importance of roles within a society, as is evident throughout the characters, embedded words, and motifs within the script. Titles and roles create identities for people and establish societal norms, and, in effect, ultimately balance the order of nature. A role defines the identity, and thus the actions and purpose, of an individual. Names and labels are essential in that they are used everyday to recognize other people and oneself. The roles indicate who said, did, and conversed with whom, fundamental to Shakespeare’s literature that involves the interaction of various characters. Most importantly, defining a person incites the effect of self-fulfillment and causes one to act according to who one is. “Dispute it like a man”: Malcolm reaffirms in MacDuff that, as a man, he is to show no weakness, even though his family had been murdered (4.3.259). Indeed, MacDuff takes the advice and conforms to his given role as a man; however, it is also fairly clear that roles can also function oppositely in a way that hinders actions. “Come you spirits/ That tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here, / And fill me to the crown to the toe-top full/ Of direst cruelty,” says Lady MacBeth, when she wishes she were a man simply because her role as a woman limits her from making her own decisions (1.5.47-50). Her intentions to snatch up the ultimate power cannot be executed, for she understands that she, the “opposite” sex, is “supposed” to behave with innocent, gentle behavior, fit to serve a male. Also consider the case of the Gentlewoman, who “[n]either to you nor anyone, having no/ witness to confirm [her] speech” because her status as a mere servant apparently makes her less credible than compared to her superiors (5.1.19-20). The suppression of these characters’ actions is the direct effect of their societal roles; titles limit the being. However, this limitation is broken when MacBeth breaks his own role as a subservient general: the loss of clear identity (due to the ambiguity of the future foreshadowed by the Sisters); therefore, MacBeth does not have defined actions, freeing him from what he is “supposed to do”, and breaks the order of the way things “should be”. How things “should be” – or societal norms, mainly ethics – is established through these roles in a given society. The idea of what is “normal” derives from our propensity to provide roles for people. For instance, the norm of social hierarchy is apparent though the difference in speech of the higher and lower end of the pyramid; thus, roles affect the way people “should” speak, as demonstrated by the simplicity of the Doctor’s words versus the sophisticated speech of MacBeth (Act 5, Scene 3). But ethics and morals are the greater issue here, which are, too, established by roles. What is right from wrong is justified based on who one is. The murderers and soldiers are no different in their actions – both kill under the orders of their leaders. But the matter is, whose actions are “justified”? What does it mean to be “justified”? In the eyes of the readers, the soldiers’ killings are “justified” because “it seems like the right thing”, as they were trained to understand that treachery must be punished, whereas the murderer’s killings are deemed as acts of “shag-eared villain[s]”. But, really, justification depends on the norms that come from their roles. Based on the inference of their casual tone in the beginning of Act 3, Scene 3, the murderers, who lack sympathy as they stab Banquo in front of Fleance ruthlessly, believe that their own crimes are “justified” not only because their master, MacBeth, approved them, but mainly because their established roles as relentless hitmen habituate them to believe so. The murderers show no signs of guilt at all; in contrast, Lady MacBeth, who defied her own role as an innocent wife and became an evildoer, bleeds guilt crying out, “What need we fear/ who knows it, when none can call our power to/ account?”; she realizes that her new identity breeds discomfort, not security nor glory (5.1.39-41). Thus it may be concluded that the disturbance of social norms results in tragedy, symbolized by MacBeth’s disturbance of his own Fate. This brings us to the ultimate conclusion: societal roles exist so that the order of nature can be maintained in harmony, as learned from the plight of MacBeth and his wife. Their irrepressible desire to reach a status they want to achieve causes them misunderstand their role in society; and as a result, they disrupt the balance of nature – including ethics, morals, and destiny – by removing others and imposing themselves in their place. Their lust for power gives birth to hubris, and they fail to see that man is insignificant compared to the greatness of the forces of nature. Consequently, they are, in the end, destroyed so that equilibrium can be established back once again. Shakespeare attempts to show that nature does indeed behave in redemptive manner, seen through the reoccurring concept of opposing structures—“fair is foul, and foul is fair” (1.1.12), “double, double toil and trouble” (4.1.10-11), “fathered he is, yet he’s fatherless” (4.2.31), “welcome and unwelcome things” (4.3.157). Opposites merge together and synthesize harmony; therefore, without the other counterpart, balance is lost, causing chaos. Good and evil is demonstrated in this manner: evil is overcome by good, in other words, “justice” takes place. These seemingly-miniscule details of opposites aggregate to reveal the play’s bigger picture of the notion that order is restored by the negative feedback within a system. MacBeth, when he realizes that the prophesy of his fall is arriving soon, states, “I begin to be aweary of the sun/ and wish the estate of the world were now/ undone” (5.5.55-57). Clearly, MacBeth openly admits his act of defiance against the “estate”—which is the settled order of the universe – in his effort to maintain his “unnatural” position as king. Shakespeare may be attempting to indicate that a society functions “normally” – or when nature is in “order” – when people live out their societal roles. Indeed, “what’s done cannot be undone” (5.1.71)—our roles in society are fixed in order for nature to be in balance. These roles can be anything: as titles, names, genders, ranks… and even as mortals. Our role as human beings under the mighty system of the universe may explain why Fate is absolute and people succumb to helplessness. MacBeth realizes this after his spouse kills herself, saying, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage/ And then is heard no more (5.5.27-29). Life is insignificant compared to nature as shown, and this insignificance is understood when one understands his role in his society. In return, nature can only flow properly if every one of its people understands and carries out their roles; otherwise, MacBeth shows us, it is plunged into chaos.