Ambition in Macbeth
In the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, the reader can pick up many different types of outward behaviors that the playwright made in his piece of literature; one of them is clearly ambition. The ambition found in the play Macbeth is what led to the tragic events. The reader can immediately infer Macbeth's ambition in the beginning of the play with the witches’ famous quote "all hail, Macbeth, which shalt be king hereafter. This quote being at the beginning of the play instantly gives the reader an inference that ambition is a factor in the play. Throughout the whole play, the trait of ambition is what led to the tragic deaths of some of the characters in the play. The one that had the biggest impact on the play would most likely have to be the death of Scotland's current king, King Duncan.
The character of Macbeth may seem like he is the only character that may portray the trait of ambition since he is main character. However if the reader looks in to in further the character of Lady Macbeth seems to be the roots of Macbeth’s great ambition. Macbeth was easily brainwashed and encouraged by his wife to become the
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Her guilt and dirty conscience is what makes her commit suicide. The strength of ambition in the play is what might even give it its title "The Tragedy of Macbeth" the title states the word tragedy because the play has all these tragic events, and they are all because of what Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s ambition. In the beginning of the play, the reader may think that towards the end of the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth achieve their negative goals. As the play proceeds, all of Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeths struggles and actions to gain their achievements they had set in mind become all just a waste because in the end they did not get anything in their
It is obvious that Macbeth has ambition, as most people who are in power do. In fact, ambition is often a necessary quality of people in such high standing as Macbeth is. However, Macbeth’s ambition does not just drive him to do great things. It in fact controls him
Ambition is what motivates people to achieve a certain thing in their life. However, many fail if their ambition is too big and unreasonable. This is definitely the case for Macbeth in the William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Macbeth's ambitious causes him to disregard his loyalty to Duncan. Moreover, Macbeths desires lead him to be immoral, going to extremes in order to achieve success. Ultimately, Macbeths deep aspirations for power demonstrates being over ambitious will end in disaster. Therefore, in the play Macbeth, Macbeths ambition leads him to corrupt his morality, resulting in his downfall
Macbeth's ambition is what allowed him to become powerful. Without ambition, it is impossible to achieve goals. Therefore, ambition is what allowed Macbeth to overcome his obstacles and come closer to his final goals. As soon as he developed the trait of vaulting ambition, Macbeth is able to make his life fall into place exactly the way he wants it to. He first murders Duncan so that he will become king. Macbeth's ambition is directly the cause of this tragic incident. This murder is in cold evil blood by Macbeth's own hand; at this point he starts seeking his future on his own and will overcome any obstacles in his
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
Macbeth: Ambition Ambition is a strong desire to do or to achieve something, “typically requiring determination and hard work.” Macbeth is a play where most people will read and learn as they go through their lives. Macbeth starts as an honorable warrior, but throughout the time his wife Lady Macbeth makes him become an ambitious person. His ambition starts off when Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to take over the throne.
As we finished reading and analyzing the story of Macbeth, we have found out his ambition which is the pursuit of power. Macbeth's ambition led him to his own downfall and have done things that is out of his characteristics. Macbeth's ambition represents a universal human pursuit of power because they will do anything to an extent to obtain power, they can be encouraged by someone to take action to get what they desire, and it can lead them to their own "downfall".
An ambition for power can seem to be true perfection, but one should be careful what they wish for, because that power might be exactly what causes their downfall. In the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare ambition plays a great role and is also a main theme. Ambition is often the motivating force in one's life. It is supposed to be the motivating factor that drives one towards success. The main character, Macbeth has ambition even though it leads him to his downfall. In contrast, Lady Macbeth pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the outcome of her actions. She becomes guilty which leads to her death since she becomes mentally ill and commits suicide, leaving Macbeth without any
A large part of William Shakespeare’s genius is attributed to his talent in examining human nature through his works. By weaving certain themes throughout his plays and poems, Shakespeare indirectly projected messages about the inherent fallacies of mankind. Such is the case with Macbeth. As classic literature goes, there are numerous themes found throughout the script. One of the most prevalent (if not the most prevalent) themes is that of blind ambition. It’s justifiable to say that blind ambition is the driving force of the plot. Nearly every major event in Macbeth was instigated, or, at the very least, influenced by various characters’ ambitious tendencies. The characters’ decisions, their influence over other characters, and moral degradation all exemplified the effect that blind ambition had.
Coinciding with the cycle of the tragic hero, Macbeth contains flaws in his character, his most prominent, being his ambition. In Shakespeare's Macbeth the idea of ambition is served as a vice to cause Macbeth’s tragic downfall. Ambition is a dangerous quality that causes those to go against their morals in order to gain power. Macbeth transforms into a self serving tyrant murdering anyone supposedly threatening his position of power or prophesied fate. ‘’I have no spur, To prick the sides of my intent, but only, Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself. And falls on the other.’’ This quote found early on in the play, reveals that Macbeth recognises his ambition as a flaw, yet not one so serious to leads, to his demise. Macbeth’s ambition is strongly influenced by lady Macbeth. “Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’ like the poor cat i’ the adage?” This simile expresses Lady Macbeth’s willingness to manipulate her husband to betrayal. She passes her murderous desires to Macbeth, building up his strong nature. Lady Macbeth’s emotive language helps Macbeth’s already present ambition, truly develop into a overpowering force. Foil is again used between Macbeth and Banquo, as well as Duncan and Macduff. Although Banquo, Duncan and Macbeth all aim to be dominant leaders they contrast from Macbeth as they withhold from the urge to let ambition control their decisions. Macbeth lets go of all sort of moral of social recognition allowing ambition to be his leading and most noticeable characteristic. Ambition is the driving element of the play triggering a series of deaths at Macbeth’s expense. He has spiralled so out of control that he is incapable of knowing any other option then to murder repetitively, to cover up his previous treasons. ‘’For mine own good, All causes shall give way. I am in blood, Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.’’ There becomes a time in the play when Macbeth s completely aware of
Macbeth’s ambition is powered by the sisters. Through the sisters he learns that he is to be king, he does not know how he is going to become king however. Ambition is the key to his downfall. Before he had this ambition he said that he would never have dreamed of killing the king to become king. The ambition drove him to kill the king, so that he could become then king.
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.
Ambition is the thing that will lead to the end of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth buys into it causing Macbeth to turn blood thirsty, in the end though it’s ambition that kills him. In the story we are introduced to a character who is a battle hardened hero. Who ends up visiting three witches who tell him that he will be king.
A large part of William Shakespeare’s genius is attributed to his talent in examining human nature through his works. By weaving certain themes throughout his plays and poems, Shakespeare indirectly projected messages about the inherent fallacies of mankind. Such is the case with Macbeth. As classic literature goes, there are numerous themes found throughout the script. One of the most prevalent (if not the most prevalent) themes is that of blind ambition. It’s justifiable to say that blind ambition is the driving force of the plot. Nearly every major event in Macbeth was instigated, or, at the very least, influenced by various characters’ ambitious tendencies. The characters’ decisions, their influence over other characters, and moral degradation all exemplified the effect that blind ambition had.