Lady Macbeth's Excessive Ambition

The Macbeth's have a very unsteady relationship and from the beginning it is known that Lady Macbeth is the one who plays out the dominant role in their marriage. She is ambitious and power hungry and won't let anyone or anything get in the way of her pertaining the throne. Lady Macbeth is ambitious in her doings and she is more driven by her determination than Macbeth. Right after reading the letter she received from Macbeth, she realizes that he has power and ambition but lacks the will to seek it through. Luckily, Lady Macbeth quickly turns to murder and realizes although Macbeth is a coward, she holds enough ambition and strength for the both of them, "Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised ; yet do I fear thy nature, /

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

To succeed in ruling the throne, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth plot to murder Duncan and in doing so they both switch gender roles. Macbeth tells Lady Macbeth about the Witches’ prophecy of him being king. Her reaction is different than you would expect. She puts him down by mocking his masculinity and by doing so, she states that in order for them to be successful, he needs to listen and follow what she is saying as she states, “Yet do I fear thy nature;/ It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness/To catch nearest way” (1.5.16-18). Shakespeare uses this rhetorical device to describe the personality of Macbeth in Lady Macbeth’s eyes. She uses the milk of human kindness to say that Macbeth cares. Due to Macbeth being kind and compassionate, Lady Macbeth does not think he will be able to go along with the prophecy the witches’ told him. Lady Macbeth speaks to Macbeth as if he is a coward and is not acting like a man. Men were typically in control over woman by having total control over the household. With Lady Macbeth

“To alter favor ever is to fear./Leave all the rest to me.” (I.6.85-86) Her perception of him is that he can’t do what it will take to get to a higher status in society, therefore she is more capable. “When you durst do it, then you were a man;/And to me more than what you were, you would/Be so much more the man.” (I.7.56-58) In addition to the fact that she considers herself superior to Macbeth, she also sees him as less of a man than she. This opinion makes her a misogynist. through her eyes, Macbeth is a lesser person than she. Yet her superiority is not the only thing that makes him inferior. She also sees him as a coward since he makes mistakes to the plan she thought

In play Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most dominant and frightening female characters, known for her ambitious nature. As Macbeth’s wife, her role is significant in his rise and fall from royalty. During Shakespearean times, women were regarded as weak insignificant beings that were there to give birth and look beautiful. They were not thought to be as intelligent or equal to men. Though in Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the highest influence in Macbeth’s life. Her role was so large; in fact, that she uses her position to gain power, stay strong enough to support her unstable Lord, and fails miserably while their

In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the audience is shown the relationship between the character of Lady Macbeth and the character of Macbeth as both a supportive and a destructive relationship. This is because Lady Macbeth supports Macbeth’s destructive ambitions such as killing the King so that he, himself could become the King of Scotland. Not only does she support his ambitions, but she also provokes Macbeth to a point of almost “bullying” Macbeth to submit to his darkest of ambitions and pressuring him into killing the king, a decision that he regrets till the end of his days. The writer, Shakespeare, shows this to the audience to illustrate the point that even the best of us can give in to evils such as avarice, temptation and greed and become a monster because of

Ambition is the desire to achieve a certain goal one has created. Yet to drive one’s ambition is the desire to achieve that goal, regardless of the consequences. Within the first act of the play Macbeth, it becomes quite clear that Macbeth and the witches carry a great deal of influence toward the titular character, but it is Lady Macbeth who drives Macbeth’s ambition the most.

Grendel is not a physical being, monster, or human, but a symbol of the darkness within man. When Beowulf’s men join the fight against Grendel, they soon realize that “no blade on Earth, no blacksmith’s art, could ever damage their demon opponent” (53). Grendel is incapable of being completely destroyed, as even after he is defeated, his arm remains with the Danes. That swords, even well crafted swords, cannot even damage Grendel is not a testament to his strength, but how ingrained in society he is. Swords and physical weapons cannot destroy the maliciousness within society, which Grendel represents.

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.

After reading Macbeth’s letter she fears “ thy nature; it is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness” like a woman while she believes that she must take full authority and references milk again in a conflicting way when she summons “ murdering ministers” to take her “milk for gall”. - Like the witches she is in contradiction with not only her gender but also her words. Though she wants to influence Macbeth soothingly, she requests to have anger and irritation which rubs off on Macbeth later in the story. In a different sense, Lady Macbeth uses her gentleness as a cover for the “serpent underth’”, a piece of advice she gives Macbeth. The lady likewise seems to influence Macbeth’s thought process- telling him to “be so much more the [/than] man” as if he should be unvanquished. “Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures” she states, annoyed. Here she uses figurative language with a metaphor but is literal as she does not believe in superstitions- another inconsistency. Her choice of words, much similar to the witches, spirals infinite conflicts Therefore we see Macbeth becoming more like his wife- overconfident at the same time afraid, obsessed but also worry free, and in the end, killed in

Some would argue that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have a very overwhelming relationship. As stated by Harold Bloom “they are the happiest married couple in all [of Shakespeare’s] work”(Bloom, 171), with their “persuasive and valuable personalities [they are considered to be] profoundly in love” (Bloom 171). Sadly, every relationship has its drawback; in this case the couple continuously exchanges power between the two of them. Lady Macbeth recognizes if she wants her man to be the dominant man that he should be, then she must take the situation into her own hands. On the contrary, Macbeth comprehends that he does not need his wife to get what he wants, all his power then comes returning back to him only to corrupt his mind and care less about

Women can be as ambitious and cruel as men, yet social constraints denied them the means to chase these ambitions on their own. Shakespeare, however, appeared to have used Lady Macbeth, and the witches, to weaken Macbeth’s idea that “undaunted mettle should compose / Nothing but males (Act I. sn. VII ln..73–74).” Lady Macbeth’s sweltering ambition to be queen was the target source of motivation that willingly kept her drawn to committing such atrocities. She persistently taunted her husband for miniscule amount of courage he possessed, even though we were aware of his bloody deeds on the battlefield; this exemplified her lack of remorse.

Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, tells the story of a seemingly noble warrior, corrupted by his wife, that kills the king in order to feed his inner greed for power. Throughout the story, unbridled ambition is seen causing rapacity, paranoia, and insanity, as observed in Lady Macbeth’s actions, which include asking spirits to help her kill the king, making a façade for herself, both of which lead to her going insane and committing suicide. To start, Lady Macbeth’s rapacity is shown in full disclosure when she begs spirits to “fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty”(Macbeth I.v.32-33). This is an indication of her fervent will to attain power through any means necessary, even if it means having to get her hands bloody.

Macbeth refers to Lady Macbeth as his “dearest partner of greatness” (1. 4. 9-10). For a women to be consider equal to a man is rare during Shakespeare’s era. Because Macbeth refers to her as his partner, he proves she is no mere housewife. She is a woman who is capable of dangerous deeds.

Correspondingly, Macbeth’s demise is all the more stimulated by his dark partner, Lady Macbeth. Her insecurity as a woman in addition to her own hunger for power is a key supplement to Macbeth’s twisted end. Her reaction to Macbeth’s letter detailing the witches’ prophecy is quite disturbing. She reveals her fear that Macbeth’s nature “is too full o’ the milk of kindness” (1.5.29). This is in spite of the fact that as Thane of Glamis, he is known to be savage and merciless. Then, Lady Macbeth vows to taint Macbeth’s kindness and to “pour my spirits in the thine ear” (1.5.29). Later in the play, before their dinner party for King Duncan, the Lady is found to be doing just this. She kickstarts her husband’s