HMD-3055-E/F: Culture Survey II. Fate in the Tragedy of Macbeth

HMD-3055-E/F: Culture Survey II, 
FIRST FORMAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT PLEASE NOTE:
The following class assignment will be included in a longitudinal study to assess thedevelopment of student writing at SVA. For this reason, please carefully follow the instructions. The study will have no impact on your class grade.
On completion ol the final draft of your paper, you will be asked to copy and paste your essay (and Works Cited list, if you have one) into the submission box in the Assignments folder on Canvas. Press the blue Submit Assignment button and then copy and paste your essay into the submission box. Please do not include your name or any other information.
ASSIGNMENT PROMPT:
In Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, Part One,and William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, we findtwo ambitious leaders elevated to the status of kingsthrough acts oftreachery, murder,or even mass murder. While Tamburlaine seems completely amoral in his willingness to terrorize entire populations to fulfill his plans, Macbeth, by contrast, seems conscious of themoral depths to which he has fallen in his determination to hold on to power.Strangely, both rulers believe their power lias been ordained by some mysterious, cosmic force—-fate,if you will—even if theyalso believe they must intervene on its behalf orin ways that undermine the moral foundation manypeople attribute to fate.
Discuss theconcept of fate or destiny and how it is appropriated by these rulers for their own purposes or to explain their actions to themselves. Doesthe author of the play youselected adheretothe ideathat fate serves some higher, moral purpose, or is he proposing instead that fate is a purelyimaginary construct used to justify powerto whomever might be persuaded?FinalIy, discuss the issue of whetherfate might be just a sense of dramatic design, a deliberate authorial patterning ofevents and statements for purely dramatic reasons.
Make a case for any of these positions (or some combination of them) by drawing on evidence from Tamburlaine OKMacbeth{b\xX not both) to support your view. You may describe specific dramatic episodes or quote relevant protagonists, but try to draw examples from the work in a way thatbuilds up alogical and persuasive argument. You should also try to use one or two reputable secondary sources to bolster your argument. Finally, please provide a short bibliography that follows MLA style and includes both primary and secondary sources.
Your essay must be about three pages long (approximately 250 words per page) and will constitute 15% of your grade. The revision of your paper will count for an additional 5% of your overall grade. Try to save all drafts of the paper as you may wish to use leftover materials from your first draft to use in your revision.