“All hail, Macbeth, That shalt be king hereafter!” (Shakespeare 311). In The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare begins with a prophecy to foretell the success Macbeth shall have in the near future. Yet, the path to the throne, is left untold. Meanwhile, Shakespeare goes on to define Macbeth as the perfect hero, granting him titles of Scottish nobility for his courage displayed in the battle against Norway. Ironically, despite being depicted as an honorable and courageous character, Macbeth creates violence through bloodshed in order to achieve the crown. His most considerable flaw, ambition, destroys Macbeth from the inside out, leaving him as empty. Shakespeare ultimately portrays a recurring theme of ambition as a direct result of personal downfall in correlation to the ideals and actions of Macbeth.
Consequently, Macbeth's ambitious desires overcome his morality throughout the entirety of the tragedy. Creating flawed characteristics, which lead to his downfall. These characteristics include the following; greed, paranoia, and betrayal. Unfortunately, his desire to achieve his ambition gave way to greedy actions. In the beginning, Macbeth was loyal to king Duncan, accepting his fate with time. “Why, if fate will have me king, why, chance may crown me,” (Shakespeare 311) . Macbeth begins to understand that all come with time. Yet, as the play progresses, so did Macbeth's sour mentality and characteristics of greed protrude. Despite knowing his set future, Macbeth proceeds to give into dark deeds for his own personal gain. Although he struggles with confliction, his wife convinces him to advance with his plans. “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man” (Shakespeare 322). Lady Macbeth is outraged when Macbeth declares to not intervene with the prophecy. More ambitious than macbeth, She begins to question his manhood, pushing him to act. His quench for power trumps his morality. “I have done the deed” (Shakespeare 329). Macbeth’s selfish desires lead to unfortunate actions. Macbeth then kills the guards, for if they are dead they can not speak for their actions. “Upon their pillows. They stared, and were distracted. No man’s
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
The play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare is based upon old Scotland and this is used as the general time frame. During this time, Monarchy still existed and Scotland is in war with Whales. There are many emotions that arise throughout the play, but the most important of all is ambition. “Ambition is the desire for personal achievement. Ambitious persons seek to be the best at what they choose to do for attainment, power, or superiority” (“Ambition”). The motif of ambition in the play is that being ambitious leaves one blind to certain areas and can drive one insane to reach the intended goal. Numerous characters that showed this trait throughout the play were Banquo, Macduff, Lady Macbeth, and Macbeth.
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.
In Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth’s descent into madness is a major theme in the story. Throughout the play we witness him try to reach his ambitions, but also witnessing his journey into insanity. What caused this descent? Macbeth had many influences in his life telling him where to go and what to do. His wife, Lady Macbeth told him to chase after his ambitions, and the three witches supposedly prophesied that his ambitions would be reached. Who was responsible for the final outcome of his descent? Lady Macbeth and the three witches were major influences in his descent, but ultimately was Macbeth responsible for his own destruction? To be able to identify who is really responsible for this unfortunate outcome, one must examine each person’s
When the reader is introduced to Macbeth in the play, King Duncan of Scotland is hearing how General Macbeth and General Banquo subdued Norwegian forces and arrested the Thane of Cawdor for treason. He seems to have a high moral standing and is a strong character, but Macbeth and Banquo meet three witches in the woods, they refer to him as Baron of Glamis, Baron of Cawdor, and then king. They also say that although Macbeth will be king, Banquo's sons will become kings as well, even if Banquo will not. Macbeth was already Baron of Glamis, and did not yet know that the king of Scotland had named him Baron of Cawdor in place of the one arrested for treason. He thought that the witches were insane but once he heard news that he was indeed
The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare recounts Macbeth's meteoric rise as a soldier and promising future leader whose megalomaniacal ambition led to his tragic downfall. In addition to Macbeth's ambitions, which initially enable him to be strong leader and soldier, he is influenced heavily by his wife, Lady Macbeth, and the three witches that prophesize his ascent to the throne, as well as warn him of his eventual demise. It can be argued that it is Macbeth's ambition that allows him to succeed in his endeavors, however the goals to which he is working toward influence the results of his hard work. Macbeth's ambitions help him to become a war hero, and as his goals change, his ambitions drive him to become a tyrannical villain.
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.
Soon after, Macbeth gave in to ambition and is also encouraged by a prophecy and Lady Macbeth, which he murders the King to take his throne. Macbeth’s betrayal throws himself into a bad state of being guilty and full of fear. Now that he is guilty and fearful, he murders again and again to satisfy his phobia. Macbeth has now became a very evil tyrant and will rightfully kill for his crimes over and over again. "For brave Macbeth well he deserves that name, Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel, Which smoked with bloody execution, Like valour's minion carved out his passage, Till he faced the slave." (1.2. 16-20).
‘Macbeth’ is a tragic play written by William Shakespeare in the sixteen hundred, it dramatizes the physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power through the character of Macbeth. ‘The Pursuit Of Happyness’ likewise is a film directed by Gabriel Muccino who portrays a man named Chris Gardener who through his hard work and dedicated ambition goes from living on the streets to a rich stockbroker. In Macbeth and pursuit of happiness, both authors explore how ambition can…. (thesis). Macbeth's ambition is portrayed in a negative light as it is aimed to gain power and status, however, Chris ambition is pushed by his desire to gain happiness and a better future for him and his son. Similarly, both characters endure toxic spousal relationships that help them to tap into their ambition but it leads to different portrayal of ambition. Macbeth and Chris eventually both face the outcome of their ambition for Macbeth it being his doom where else for Chris it being his success. Shakespeare and Gabriel Muccino explore the theme of ambition through the protagonists of both plays.
likens it to a horse that tries to jump over a fence which is too high
Macbeth is depicted at the start of the play to be a very loyal and a honest man, which changes dramatically due to the fact that Lady Macbeth (LMB) manipulates Macbeth (MB) with all her might to kill King Duncan, because LMB’s passion and selfishness driver her crazy to the equivalence of being a witch. LMB basically wants to be the queen, so that she can most of the power and so people can treat her like a literal queen. Also MB also had that little bit of ambition that was never let out before the murder of King Duncan but ever since he had killed the KIng he had been regretting ever since. Therefore making him seen as a evil person. This traces back to the real world.
Shakespeare’s characterization of Macbeth and his consequences reveals his warning about ambitions and its downfalls. Macbeth begins as a noble man who’s ambition ruins him and his true self, leading to his inevitable death. In Act I, Shakespeare presents Macbeth as an accomplished man whose lust for more is fueled by his wife’s ambitions. At this point in the play, Lady Macbeth commonly challenges his masculinity to drive his ambition to kill King Duncan and acclaim the throne of Scotland: “Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act and valour as thou art desire?” (P. 29). Conversely, by Act III, Macbeth’s ambition is self-driven because of the prophecy making him loses his sense of morality, and become corrupt. One such action is the murder of Banquo, Macbeth’s “noble partner” (P. 17): “Who wear our health but sickly in his life, which his death were prefect” (P. 56). Banquo’s murder serves as the beginning of Macbeth’s crumbling edifice, as for each murder he commits, he falls deeper into the world of deception.
“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erlaps itself and falls on th’ other-” (Shakespeare 321). Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth highlights the dedication of characters towards a specific cause or achievable goal. However, the intentions of the character and the intensity of their pursuit varies as the action of the play progresses. Throughout The Tragedy of Macbeth, main characters exemplify the positive and negative influence of ambitions through their thoughts, traits, actions, and motivations.
(HOOK) Thomas Hobbes is a 17th century english philosopher who believed that human nature is naturally evil, greedy and ambitious. (THEMATIC) If individuals become consumed by their ambition and becomes blind to the consequences of their choices it can cause rifts in their relationships. (SOURCES) Macbeth is a piece of classical literature by Sir William Shakespeare first performed in 1606.