As Joshua has completed reading the novel, we today explored how and why Aristotle's definition of hamartia captures both the role of character and Fate in the play. In this regard, we identified the role of the witches as representing Fate and Joshua discussed how Macbeth challenges Fate by exercising free will thereby suggesting a more limited role of Fate in Macbeth's downfall. Using this discussion, we then worked on revising Joshua's short essay answer on last week's test in order to clarify his argument about the relationship between Fate and free will in the play. We also noted how Shakespeare builds tension by adding a few almost irrelevant short scenes before we see McDuff exact vengeance on Macbeth.