Essay about Macbeth's ambition

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

There are many different themes displayed in Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth. Many of these themes play with nature, the supernatural, and fate. From ghosts to horses eating each other the play uses symbolism, language, and characters to portray these themes. During the play the audience learns of several themes such as ambition, guilt, fate versus free will, nature versus the unnatural, and how things are not always as they seem.

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

     In Shakespeare’s classic tragedy of Macbeth the main character Macbeth is driven from his status as a well respected warrior and lord of not one, but two Scottish regions to a dishonest, unloyal murderer. Macbeth gets caught in a web of lies and vile acts of murder in which he brings about his own demise. His criminal actions lead up to his tragic ending of life. ‘ They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly, But bearlike I must fight the course.’ His great ambition and gullibility of the witches predictions are two of the biggest factors of his downfall;however, Lady Macbeth was probably the biggest influence in the whole tragedy.

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.

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

"Macbeth" is a tragic play that was written by William Shakespeare in the early 1600’s. It revolved around the character Macbeth and his urge to become king of Scotland. Macbeth had to do anything possible to become the king including murder, lying, and deception. However, Macbeth committed these evil deeds due to some influential people in his life. Between Macbeth’s wife persuading him to do anything to become king and the witches prophesying over him causes Macbeth to try and bury the past and control the future.

3. 157-159) Macbeth’s arrogance is made apparent with the immediacy of his thoughts of becoming king and it is clear that the supernatural has given him arrogant ambition as Macbeth is already beginning to think of how he will be crowned king. Macbeth eventually decides he will show his “Black and deep desires” (1. 4. 58) and murder Duncan, the current king of Scotland. This is a shift from Macbeth showing loyalty to Scotland and the king as he now has arrogantly, for the benefit of himself becoming king, murdered Duncan, the king of Scotland. Duncan was greatly admired and respected by the population of Scotland. Macbeth himself describes Duncan as “meek” (1. 7. 17) and being “so clear in his great office” (1. 7. 18). When Macduff first realizes the death of Duncan, he describes the scene as: “O horror, horror, horror!” (2. 3. 73) Macbeth acknowledges that the reaction to Duncan’s death would be mournful before murdering him: “Pity… / Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, / That tears shall drown the wind” (1.7. 21-25). However, Macbeth’s only goal is to become king, not to please the population of Scotland who admires their king greatly and sees him as a righteous person. After tempting Macbeth with the idea of becoming king, the supernatural gives Macbeth arrogant ambition, forcing him to contrast his loyal and courageous personality, which motivates him to kill Duncan.

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

Macbeth displays ambition by the way he talks and his actions over the course of the play. Ambition is a strong desire to do or achieve something that takes hard work and dedication. In the play Macbeth, Macbeth has strong desire to be successful out on the battlefield and also in his pursuit to take over as king. Macbeth’s ambition is detrimental to himself and that is shown throughout the play. Macbeth’s strong desires and aspirations end up hurting him after all and the bad things he had done eventually catch up to him.

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.

Many Shakespearian dramas, like Macbeth, are inspired by the ancient Greek notion of tragedy and the fall of man; much of which is powered by one’s lust for greater gains. Correspondingly, the play reveals how ambition creates the capability of deteriorating a man’s morality and world. This is presented through the titular character and his “dearest partner of greatness” (P. 23) and the consequences of their actions.

THESIS: In Macbeth, the author, William Shakespeare, uses Macbeth’s vaulting ambition to show how misused ambition can be a flaw.

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).