Cheating Ambition In Macbeth By William Shakespeare

Human nature, the dictation of an individual’s actions, is controlled by two majors force of loyalty and ambition. The play Macbeth, a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, revolves around the story of Macbeth and his rise from the thane of Cawdor to the King of Scotland through multiple bloody murders. His malevolent acts lead him to be hated by many, prompting a revolt that ends his reign. Initially, Macbeth was shown to be loyal follower, never thinking to do anything that would contrast his allegiance to the king. Upon hearing a prophecy of his future to become king, a spark of ambition ignited within Macbeth that drove him to commit foul acts in order to gain kingship. Macbeth’s loyal characteristics and ambitions could not coexist, and as one fought for control against the other, Macbeth delved further into darkness culminating in his fall and death. Throughout the play of Macbeth, Shakespeare depicts that it is human nature to struggle with the balance of one’s own obligations as well as the desires and ambitions that drives them; he presents this struggle as impossible to overcome, with it eventually leading one’s self to the brink of insanity.

Ambition is often the driving force in one’s life. It can have an extremely dominant impact on not only yourself, but also many people in your surroundings. You have the ability to control if the outcomes either have a lasting negative or positive effect. When a goal requires determination and hard work to complete, personal morals often take a back seat to the aspiration of accomplishing the goal. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, it is clear that like many other great leaders, Macbeth exemplifies the necessary leadership virtue of ambition. Macbeth’s ambition does not just drive him to do great things. It in fact controls him. The playwright explores the idea of how an individual’s ambition can cause them to deceive others, make irrational

‘Macbeth’ is a tragic play written by Shakespeare that dramatizes tragic flaw of ambition and murderous intent in Macbeth, which is manipulated by his equally ambitious wife and the inherently evil witches. This leads him to murder King Duncan.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the theme of guilt and conscience is one of many explored throughout the play. Macbeth, is a well respected Scottish noble who in the beginning of the play is a man everyone looks up to; however as the play progresses he makes a number of bad decisions. Eventually, as a result of his actions he suffers guilt and this plays heavily upon his character until his personality is completely destroyed. Shakespeare uses a range of techniques in order to develop this theme such as, characters, imagery.

Thesis: Deception, seduction, and ambition are a lethal combination. Shakespeare’s Macbeth establishes this concept early on. Ambition is the motivational thrust that most often gives momentum as one tries to achieve success. However, without the occasional tune-up, Macbeth demonstrates how unchecked ambition can quickly become a speeding, out-of-control, vehicle that ultimately leads to destruction.

William Shakespeare wrote in his play Macbeth, "If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me.” In many ways throughout this play, Shakespeare was giving the warning of ambition to the audience. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a simple man. Respectful and obedient to his King, Macbeth wanted nothing but to please. When three witches came to him and his good friend, Banquo, and told them their destinies, this began something ghastly. Mysteriously, they informed Macbeth he was to be king. This sparks something in Macbeth that is dangerous and eventually leads to his demise, ambition. Wickedly, Macbeth and his wife plan to murder the king during the night so that Macbeth may be crowned sooner. The driving force of this accord

As a result, she stated the following, “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.” Through this she begs the spirits to take away any sympathy within in her in order to have the wit, desire, and drive her husband lacked of in order to become royalty. Through Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare shows there’s no such thing as impossible on the way to getting what one wants. In addition to giving up her femininity, Lady Macbeth also sacrifices her morals by convincing her husband to kill the king, when failing to do so; she states, “When you durst do it, then you were a man.” In other words she convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan, despite knowing what a horrid crime that was. The struggle to go through anything standing in her way caused her to lose herself as well as her sanity. After realizing what she had caused, she began to lose her mind. She would constantly see her hands covered in blood by those who had been murdered along the way. Unable to get rid of the image in her head, led her to eventually commit suicide.

He becomes so completely enveloped with the idea of growing in power that he doesn’t come to the realization that everything he is doing is harming the lives of other people. Macbeth simply thinks of himself whereas before he began his mental deterioration, he thought of his country over all else. Macbeth went to the war in order to save his people and when he returned, he was deemed a higher rank in the nobility. This shows just how much the people in his kingdom appreciated him and everything he did for their society. However, once Macbeth begins to kill to grow in rank and stay there, his personality completely changes for the worse.

The Influences of Desire Desire means what people really want to do or to have in deep of their heart, sometimes it doesn’t show on their face. Desire can be people's ambitions, freedom of love, or a strong body. Here is an example for ambition, in Shakespeare’s "Macbeth”, the character Macbeth grows his desire of power after he heard from the three witches that he will be the next king soon. His ambitions, the desire of power influenced him so much that it turned him into an evil person.

Similar to Lady Macbeth, Macbeth is presented in a deceptive manner, first appearing to be a hero, but eventually deteriorating into something else. His formidable contributions on the battlefield are overshadowed by his lust for power, which leads him into killing Duncan so he that he can take the throne. Indeed, it is the witches who plant the thought of becoming king inside of Macbeth’s head, but it is Macbeth who immediately “yields to the suggestion” (1.3.146) of murdering, which despite “make[s] [his] seated heart knock at [his] ribs (1.3.148), is a thought that he completely created on his own. The witches spoke nothing of murder, showing that even without being deceived, Macbeth has a dark mind. And although Lady Macbeth convinces him to go through with the plan, all of the other dark deeds he commits are formed based on his own thoughts, not those of others, showing that he is capable of deceiving without needing help from others.

Ambition is a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. In Williams Shakespeare 's Macbeth the characters Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have a strong desire to ascend the throne and they are determined to do whatever it takes in order to achieve this goal, including deceiving and killing those they are closest to. The zeal of ambition predominately persuades both characters actions in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth portrays how the forces of ambition strike her to instil a powerful drive in her husband, also how she demonstrates an overweening pride and lack of morals in order to reach a goal and lastly how ambition leads Macbeth to betray those cares about most.

In addition, Aristotle believes themes and type of diction classifies whether or not a play is a tragedy. He states they should includes various themes, speeches that reveal themes and character, and metaphors. (McManus) Macbeth has various themes, such as, excessive ambition leads to one’s downfall, for which they aspire to reach unreachable heights, deception leads to bigger lies and to one’s downfall, and “fair is foul, and foul is fair,” (I, i, 12) meaning there is good and bad in everything. Macbeth perfectly demonstrates how excessive ambition can lead to one’s downfall as it leads to his death.

It is a popular assumption that ambition is not a quality that someone is born with. Alternatively, external influences frequently catalyze the development of ambition. During the play, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth, a general from Scotland hears prophecies from three witches. One of these states that he will become King of Scotland. Upon hearing these, his power-hungry wife, Lady Macbeth, manipulates him into murdering King Duncan.

“He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must fall with the greatest loss.” - Niccolo Machiavelli William Shakespeare’s Macbeth presents a fascinating discussion of ambition, and what it is capable of. Shakespeare portrays ambition as a trait that is dangerous and demonstrates this through the main characters of this play. As such, William Shakespeare’s

Ambition drives some to hurt others. They see success as excelling by pushing another person behind. Rather than concentrating on enhancing themselves, these individuals endeavor to damage others with an end goal to help their own particular relative position. In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, Macbeth is a solid fighter who battles for the King without leniency yet his take a stab at ambition and his inquisitive nature drives him to the witches who welcome him with a prediction (Shakespeare). Banquo understands that there must be a trap covered up in the witches’ predictions some place yet Macbeth declines to acknowledge that, and when Lady Macbeth gets some answers concerning the witches her powerful urge for ambition and her frosty nature drives Macbeth adrift. In the words of the Third Witch “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!...So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!” (1.3.53;70-71). Lady Macbeth's ambition far surpasses Macbeth's’ thus she can inspire Macbeth to concur with her to slaughter King Duncan. A change comes over Macbeth after his meeting; he is at no time in the future substance to be a devotee of the King, he will "be" King at any cost even if it means he will have to taint his success.