Compromise Of Happiness In Macbeth

In Macbeth, Shakespeare explores the theme of moral decay produced by the temptation of power. When Macbeth hears the witches’ prophecy (1.3.45) he does not understand how he can become King of Scotland; the only way to attain the crown would be through committing the grave and unjustifiable sin of regicide. Despite this, Macbeth ignores his conscience (1.7.80) and when presented with the opportunity, aided by Lady Macbeth, he murders Duncan (2.1.62). Although he immediately regrets his actions and is filled with compunction (2.2.55, 2.2.63-65), Macbeth decides that there is no going back and “things bad begun make themselves strong by ill.” (3.2.55) Macbeth’s allows his inherent lust for power to completely outweigh his moral conscience.

In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the title character Macbeth and his wife are both exceptionally ambitious, often taking rather radical measures to accomplish their goals. While this ruthless drive to power is seemingly prosperous at first, it quickly crumbles to naught as guilt infects their minds with grim consequences to follow. Macbeth transforms from a noble general to a guilt-ridden and despaired murderer, while Lady Macbeth’s usually stoic and masculine persona deteriorates into a pitiful and anxious shell of her former self. The feeling of remorse quickly plagues the two characters and overpowers ambition through manifesting itself through nightmares, ghosts, and paranoia, and ultimately leads to their demise.

Macbeth, a highly revered Thane, was a huge war hero and feels that this is who he is meant to be. Upon returning from war, he meets 3 witches who start his prey drive towards the other members of the kingdom. Our witches reveal that Macbeth will become Thane of a second region, but will not just stop at being a Thane. He will one day be king. Macbeth reveals this to his wife, who quickly becomes the force behind the madness. She insists that the only way for Macbeth to become king is to murder the current king who just so happens to be coming to stay with the Macbeth’s that very night. It is here that Macbeth turns himself into a force of direct suffering.

With attention to the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth struggles with the morality of his actions. Before the murder takes place, Macbeth begins to believe that the murder will “be the be-all and the end-all” to his clear conscious and would risk him to eternal damnation (Act I, line 5). Yet, the murder would bring him power over Scotland and he “shalt be kind” as told by the Weird Sisters(Act 1, line 50). Macbeth goes off of his ambition to murder King Duncan. The internal struggle of choosing mortality over motives brought forth an intense shift of loyalty to betrayal. The murder caused for Macbeth to turn on Scotland and only care for his own selfish motives. The betrayal causes for the play to become horrific and have a double meaning. Macbeth must put on a face to hide his murder to become the king. The double meaning is how Macbeth looks like a hero to all of Scotland, but only the people on the inside know of his horrific actions. He had to murder to to get the position of King, but the

Lady Macbeth becomes incensed at her husband “Naught’s had, all’s spent,/ Where our desire is got without content./ ‘Tis safer to be that which we destroy/ Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy” (III.ii.4-7) that all will turn to nothing if Macbeth starts to feel guilty about killing. She tries to teach him how to become unemotional and fearless. All of these commands and actions cause Macbeth to have a war inside of him, leading him to his downfall.

Macbeth is slain as a tyrant and Lady Macbeth takes her own life. Shakespeare does not give either character the opportunity to enjoy what they had achieved, suggesting that it is more satisfying to achieve your goals fairly than to achieve them through corruption.

The writer, Shakespeare, illustrates to the audience that the consequences do not just affect the person who have the ambitions, but it also affects the people around them. He does this by expressing the ambition through the characters of Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are shown to be ambitious and their ambition feeds off of each other. Macbeth is initially shown to the audience as a brave and selfless soldier who is loyal to his king till the day he dies. But, once Macbeth hears the prophecy of the three witches’, (that he will become the King of Scotland), Macbeth changes. He develops a deep, dark and horrible ambition of ruthlessly murdering the king and taking his place. Macbeth then writes to Lady Macbeth telling her of his ambitions. This leads to Lady Macbeth provoking Macbeth’s ambitions instead of telling him to forget about it. As she provokes Macbeth the audience can clearly see that this woman is bad news. “Was the hope drunk?Wherein you dress'd yourself? hath it slept since?... and wakes it now, to look so green and pale which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I

William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play.

“...it's true that some of the most terrible things in the works are done by people who think, genuinely think, that they're doing it for the best” (Terry Pratchett). In Shakespeare’s play, The Scottish Play, Macbeth is driven by selfish desires to take his fate into his own hands and go to extremes to obtain the title of King of Scotland. At the start of his pursuit for power his actions are planned and his first murder has real meaning behind it. Next, Macbeth targets the man who will father future kings. Finally, Macbeth becomes so paranoid and overcome with guilt that he has innocent women and children murdered. What starts as selfish ambition can quickly grow into an all consuming force, causing one to abandon one's honor, lose friends

Macbeth, from Shakespeare’s world renowned Macbeth, serves as an example as the type of person who has their sight set on power and control and is willing to let their unchecked ambition get ahead of them. Macbeth had such a strong desire for power that he was even willing to commit the evil act of murdering King Duncan. Macbeth has chosen the path of evil, which for Macbeth this includes murdering loyal friends, scheming with apparitions and witches, and even murdering sleep, but now there is no turning back.

Ambition is an admirable trait that enabled famous writers and scholars to attain an unbelievable greatness. However, highly ambitious people often end up failing because they are unable to fill up an insatiable hole of greed that leads them to constant frustration and dissatisfaction. Just as an excessive ambition can start with malice, it can end in anguish and despair. In the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the main protagonist, Macbeth, and his wife, Lady Macbeth, demonstrate an ambition that has an exacerbating impact on them that slowly leads to the self-destruction and obliteration of people around. After Lady Macbeth clouded Macbeth’s mind, Macbeth killed a benevolent king Duncan. But even with crown and power, Macbeth spend his life in fear and anxiety, until the weight of the ambition was relieved by his downfall. Through Macbeth’s character, Shakespeare shows that the extreme ambition that was emerged out of ferocious passion could devour an individual’s moral goodness, which in turn would carve the path directly to the total misery. Possessing such ambition makes the individual live in a self-imposed fretfulness and expose the closest people under consequential threats.

The play of Macbeth is about a man called Macbeth who got a prophecy that he was going to be king. Once his first prophecy, being a cawdor, came true he did everything in his power to make sure he would be king. He strongly believed that taking the throne would his life better or happier. He had already had land because he was already a cawdor, the king even went as far as to give Macbeth more land for his services. All that land meant nothing to Macbeth because he wanted it all. His decision to complete the prophecy led him to be consumed by greed. He was convincing himself that he was doing this for the happiness of him and his wife. These thoughts led Macbeth to murdering the king, his cousin, Duncan. Macbeth’s best friend Banquo knew of his prophecy and soonly discovered that Macbeth killed the king. Paranoid about being discovered Macbeth ordered the murder of Banquo. Macbeth thought that now he could rein the kingdom of Scotland without anyone to accuse him of murder and for a while no one did. They should be happy now right? On the contrary Macbeth and his wife began going insane. In the end, Macbeth was killed and his wife died of insanity. Macbeth believed that having everything that his cousin had would make him happier than he was earlier on in the story but instead he was constantly consumed with guilt of his actions and died a horrible death. The story of Macbeth proves that having everything doesn’t make people happy. Having money and fame like celebrities isn’t going to make you happy. If Macbeth was just content with what he had he might’ve been king eventually without the

Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most powerful and emotionally intense plays. Macbeth, once known for his courage and bravery is transformed into a ruthless tyrant. His wife, Lady Macbeth, once known for her strength and great ambition is soon engulfed by guilt and sensitivity greatly weakens her. As the tragic hero Macbeth is overcome by tensions in his criminal act and the reactions by his conscience (Nix).

In every human there is an innate desire for power and evil, it doesn’t show itself in every man but in Shakespeare's Macbeth, the character macbeth is quickly overcome with that evil, as he commits acts of murder to gain this power that was foretold to him, evil consumes every bit of good that was left in him.

“He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must fall with the greatest loss.” Niccolo Machiavelli means to say is that when driven by blind ambition, one will go to the highest rank possible and the only thing left for one to do is to fall. In Shakespeare’s most bloody and gory play “Macbeth”, the late Shakespeare correctly exemplifies the fact that if one is ambitious one will have the greatest downfall, and will suffer consequences. Macbeth a mighty and ambitious warrior from the medieval times, manipulated by the peculiar sisters’ prophecy, leads Macbeth into thinking he has a chance to become king. Due to Macbeth’s blind ambition, he becomes a gruesome killer. Macbeth performs several slaughters in order to achieve the throne. Lady Macbeth, who is just as ambitious, worked side by side with Macbeth so she could become queen, and she too takes part in all the slaughters. After all these murders Macbeth and Lady Macbeth becomes crazy and starts feeling guilty and share a common goal. In the end due to all the horrific things Macbeth and his wife have done to other people, they all decide to take revenge on them, thus leading to their deaths. Therefore if one is blindly ambitious, one will face costs.