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Personal Ambition In Macbeth

Decent Essays

Personal ambition was an important value during the Renaissance time period in England. Personal ambition was also a vital part of two of the most prominent novels in england's history, “Paradise Lost” by John Milton and “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare. It In each story, both of the main female characters, Eve and Lady Macbeth, portray the idea of personal ambition at its best by their ability to manipulate. Lady Macbeth is the one who takes advantage of her husband’s, Macbeth, emotions in order to become queen. Eve, however, is very curious about herself and after she eats the fruit from the forbidden tree she starts to view herself as Adam’s equal and wants to possibly be superior to him. Both Shakespeare and Milton viewed ambition as a strength but at the same time it can be a weakness and the downfall for certain people or characters in life or stories. Lady Macbeth as a character was very ambitious. She is debatably one of the more powerful characters in all of literature. Her burning ambition to be queen is the single feature that Shakespeare developed far beyond that of her counterpart in the historical story he used as his source. Lady Macbeth is the one who originally plots duncan’s murder and manipulates Macbeth into proceeding with the murder by questioning his manhood saying, “To be the same in thine own act and valour. As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that. Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life, And live a coward in thine own esteem, Letting 'I

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