The Cost Of Ambition In Macbeth And Into Thin Air

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.

Ambition is a critical need to maintain our productive lives. It gives humans something meaningful to work for and motivates them to become better for themselves. Without ambition no one would want to improve anything, leading to nothing getting done as hope fades away and humans settle into their assigned roles. Therefore it has influenced our species to climb up to imaginable heights and strive to become the respected leader one day. But, being too ambitious can lead to different outcomes as shown in Into Thin Air and Macbeth.

Macbeth is a play written by Shakespeare that is set in eleventh century Scotland. It details the life of the Macbeth, a brave and noble man who is described as ‘Bellona’s bridegroom’ (1.3.54), specifically the events after he meets three supernatural creatures who tell him about his fate. The reader should see Macbeth as a great man whose ambition for security leads to his downfall. Ambitions and manipulation from his wife cause him to commit Duncan’s murder, but this particular murder does not relate to Macbeth’s downfall. This man’s ambition for the crown turns into ambition for security after he becomes king, causing him to kill more to keep his unrightful kingship safe. There are a lot of supernatural occurrences in this play, but

Shakespeare not only presents the actions of characters, but also helps us to understand what motivates characters to act the way they do. The tragedy, Macbeth, is a play where there are many dreadful events, and strong motivations behind them. Macduff and Macbeth are two characters of Macbeth who encounter great, but not always good, motivation for their actions.

Ambition has been a driving force of humanity since the beginning of time. Emotions have always had a strong influence on humanity, specifically emotions that tend towards the ruin of others and the gain another. Throughout the history of humanity there have been many examples of people abusing their position of power, to gain something they more than likely did not deserve. Whether it be Hitler and his repulsive ascension to becoming chancellor of Germany, or Kim Jong Un’s obsession with obtaining nuclear weapons at the cost of the people, humanities struggle with greed is unceasing. No one better illustrates this unrelenting thirst for power more than Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Macbeth is a good, brave, and beloved man at the beginning of the play with the end of his latest battle heralding a new title for him. Fate though, seems to have different plans for the good, albeit, ambitious Macbeth. He is told by the 3 weird sisters that he will one day become king. Thus igniting the flame of greed within Macbeth, signaling his descent into madness and the guilt he feels towards the deeds he has done. Lady Macbeth is much the same in the sense that once she knew of Macbeths own ambition, it hatched her own deep seeded desire for the crown as well. However, there various similarities end with the death of Duncan and the way they both deal with the guilt over what they did. In the play Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have similarly great ambition, but this intense avarice in the end leads to their ruin in differing ways.

“The power-hungry individual follows a path to his own destruction”- Adler. Macbeth a play written by Shakespeare shows how individuals make decisions based on their hunger for power. Individuals go from being the loyal and devoted person; to the traitor and the killer of the king tend to lose their sense of what's right and wrong, and also lose stability in the mind and mental health. Macbeth was one of those persons who changed drastically for the worse because he was power hungry after he killed many people, and he got to deep into a hole where he couldn't get out of so he lost is sense of sanity. Throughout the play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses internal conflict to show how people gain power and collapse due to their lose of some individuals mental health and sense of wrong from right.

With attention to the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth struggles with the morality of his actions. Before the murder takes place, Macbeth begins to believe that the murder will “be the be-all and the end-all” to his clear conscious and would risk him to eternal damnation (Act I, line 5). Yet, the murder would bring him power over Scotland and he “shalt be kind” as told by the Weird Sisters(Act 1, line 50). Macbeth goes off of his ambition to murder King Duncan. The internal struggle of choosing mortality over motives brought forth an intense shift of loyalty to betrayal. The murder caused for Macbeth to turn on Scotland and only care for his own selfish motives. The betrayal causes for the play to become horrific and have a double meaning. Macbeth must put on a face to hide his murder to become the king. The double meaning is how Macbeth looks like a hero to all of Scotland, but only the people on the inside know of his horrific actions. He had to murder to to get the position of King, but the

Initially, Macbeth’s ambition for power is subdued by his longing to hold onto his honor and dignity. Unfortunately, Macbeth lets go of his integrity and kills the unguarded Duncan and so in an attempt to keep the guilt of his deeds to himself, distances himself from not only his wife but also has one of his closest friends murdered. Finally, Macbeth’s thirst for power and greatness emptied him of everything he had; dignity, respect, and honor. Ultimately, motivation that is founded on selfish reasons leads one down a path that strippes one of everthing they have and so takes away any meaning to

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

Ambition is a good characteristic to have in small quantities, but also leads to evil actions in excessive amounts. Ambition helped to lead Macbeth to accepting Lady Macbeth’s plan of killing King Duncan. Historically, people let their ambition control their actions, not just guide them. Ambition leads a successful businessman to seemingly anything to advance himself to the point he wants, no matter what he has to do to get there. Also ambition is present today in gangs, lower members want power, so ultimately they do anything to get to the top, including murder.

In literature, a character’s motivation is often a complex concoction of conflicting emotions that are owed ultimate consideration when analyzing the direction of the plot. In The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, a character known to the reader as Lady Macbeth has her actions orchestrated by greed in a vivacious effort to receive and gain power. She seeks to accumulate power for herself and her husband, Macbeth. She employs ruthless tactics of manipulation and emasculation.

After hearing hearing the witches prophecies Macbeth considered his possibilities. He wanted to become king but his instincts lead him to the conclusion that murder would be wrong and could have serious consequences. Macbeth speaks with his wife who convinces him that murdering king Duncan is the opportunity they have been looking for. “Insert quote: lady macbeth convinces Macbeth” Her desire to become queen helps Lady Macbeth stand up to her husband and demanded he kill duncan. It is because of her evil desires that Macbeth finds himself at the tip of a sword. This is much like the situation of Rob Hall, the leader of the 1996 expedition, was put in. Rob Hall’s 1996 expedition did not consist of expert climbers but ordinary people trying to achieve something great. For Doug Hanson, a postal worker from Seattle, Hall’s expedition was chance to achieve something he once could not. His heart and mind was set on reaching the peak of Everest and because of this he finds himself putting the life another at risk. During the final push for the summit Rob Hall notices that time is running out. Turning around seemed like the only option at the time. For Doug Hansen it was not a matter of how but when. Being so close to the peak Doug was determined to continue

In Macbeth, Shakespeare explores the theme of moral decay produced by the temptation of power. When Macbeth hears the witches’ prophecy (1.3.45) he does not understand how he can become King of Scotland; the only way to attain the crown would be through committing the grave and unjustifiable sin of regicide. Despite this, Macbeth ignores his conscience (1.7.80) and when presented with the opportunity, aided by Lady Macbeth, he murders Duncan (2.1.62). Although he immediately regrets his actions and is filled with compunction (2.2.55, 2.2.63-65), Macbeth decides that there is no going back and “things bad begun make themselves strong by ill.” (3.2.55) Macbeth’s allows his inherent lust for power to completely outweigh his moral conscience.

Macbeth’s mental and moral deterioration throughout the play engages the audience illustrating how guilt overwhelms his conscience He believes he hears voices crying “Macbeth has murdered sleep” this demonstrates how he is battling against his morals and his ambition. His good qualities are battling his bad thoughts and this is the main reason for his mental downfall which makes for a deeply engaging plot. Macbeth goes from being a man of bravery, strength, honour yet he slowly loses these qualities. He once believed that killing a good man was an evil, un-worthy thing to do yet by the end of the play he is killing the people he once had close relationships with to get himself out of the mess that was dragging him deeper into despair and tragedy. This process is enthralling for the audience who cannot resist watching him go to any length to save himself as his morals go into deep decline. Ambition has completely taken over him in the soliloquy in which he states; “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleap itself and falls on the other.” In this instance Macbeth is interesting because he realises that the only thing that is making him want to kill Duncan is

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.