The Destruction Wrought When Ambition Goes Unchecked By Moral Constraints

   In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth decide, in a great fit of ambition, to kill King Duncan.  Later in the play we see the same two characters undergo a transformation in their personalities after murdering the King.  Macbeth begins the play as a noble soldier and gradually changes into an ambitious and murdering tyrant.  Lady Macbeth begins as a strong, ambitious woman who dominates her husband and gradually changes into a weak and guilt-ridden woman.  This essay will explore the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth before and after the murder of King Duncan.

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

"This dead butcher and his fiend like queen"(V.viii.80) is the way Malcolm describes Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.  The characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth changed considerably during the course of the play, Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare.  In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is seen as a courageous soldier who is loyal to the King.  As the play progresses, Macbeth is corrupted by the witches’ prophecies and by his and Lady Macbeth’s ambition. Because of the weakness of Macbeth’s character and the strength of Lady Macbeth’s character, Lady Macbeth is able to easily influence him.  Lady Macbeth pushes Macbeth toward evil at first, but after he realizes what he has done, it is his decision to

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is the true villain of the play as she is evil, ambitious and eventually insane. Lady Macbeth masterminded the idea to kill King Duncan and planted the vision into Macbeths mind, she convinced Macbeth to commit such a crime, and her love for her husband was eventually overruled by her determination and lust for power. Throughout the play she starts to show her true colours and the destructive force of her ambition, which inevitably results in nothing but disaster.

In Shakespeare play, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s character progresses in an interesting manner. Lady Macbeth is made to act as an incentive to Macbeth's immoral actions. Even though Macbeth is generally the person to have a final say before killing someone, Lady Macbeth plays the role of his “sidekick”. She mocks her husband if he worries over a sinful deed (which usually she instructs him to do), saying he would be less of a man if he does not follow through with their plan (I. vii. 56-57). She gives Macbeth a short lecture in deceptiveness when they are planning to kill King Duncan (I. vi. 73-78). She also prepared the daggers for Macbeth to kill Duncan in advance (II. ii. 15-16). Although her husband was still having doubts, she was always ready to go in for the kill. She did not think twice about it or feel any remorse. This shows that Lady Macbeth evolved into looking like a humble and quieter person on the exterior, but being an insane woman and criminal due to the events that have affected her.

Macbeth starts off as a “brave” man who is physically capable of a lot, but is mentally very weak. Whereas Lady Macbeth is limited physically by her sex, but believes that she is mentally stronger than Macbeth. As the play pans out we are able to make our own judgment on each characters strengths and weaknesses. In the “unsex me” scene Lady Macbeth tells us that she wants to be changed from being a weak woman so that she can replace Macbeth who is mentally weak with her own mental strength in order to successfully become the king. After the killing of Duncan Lady Macbeth accidently hints that she was unable to kill Duncan herself and at this point shows her first signs of mental weakness. After this point they basically change places, Lady Macbeth becomes and insignificant and weak character in the play, who spirals downwards into insanity. She grows so ill that the doctor says there 's nothing he can do to help her. "The disease," he says, "is beyond" his "practice," and what Lady Macbeth needs is "the divine" (a priest or, God), not a "physician". On the other hand Macbeth steps up and plans for himself to murder many more people as his mental strength has significantly grown. Lady Macbeth’s transformation from that of a powerful and "unnaturally" masculine figure into an enfeebled woman reestablishes a sense of "natural" gender order in the play. In other words, Lady Macbeth is put in her place,

     Macbeth is shown as a vigorous war hero in the opening scene. “And fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling showed like a rebel’s whore. But all’s too weak for brave Macbeth.” (1.2 16.18) The captain expressing the braveness of great Macbeth in Scotland’s battle with the invading Norway hordes. It didn’t take long for the people of

As there is already a King in power, Lady Macbeth and her husband face a difficult decision. In order for Macbeth to be King, the reigning King Duncan would have to die. Lady Macbeth is a kind and gentle women but when she is faced with the temptation of a higher power she turns to darkness to help her commit this sin(quote about de womanizing her). Leading up to the murder of King Duncan, Lady Macbeth doesn't believe that Macbeth is strong enough and doubts his ability to be a man and take charge. (quote about milk of human kindness). Her doubt about her husband stays with her throughout the play and is what constantly drives a wedge between their relationship. What once was a marriage full of love, now is filled with manipulation and

Whilst the character of Macbeth is initially portrayed as a noble kinsman, his ambition and motivation, directly influenced by the witches and Lady Macbeth, ultimately transforms him into a corrupt and ruthless tyrant. William Shakespeare’s most famous tragedy “Macbeth” clearly depicts this notion of change, illustrated through Shakespeare's utilisation of literary techniques. The tragic downfall of Macbeth is mainly attributed to Macbeth’s own greed and hubris.

However once they accomplish the deed, the torment that the guilt brings is too much for Macbeth but he gets used to the evil of killing people meanwhile the opposite happens to Lady Macbeth who becomes paranoid about killing Duncan. Shakespeare presents the play in such a way that the audience sees how more and more their relationship changes dramatically as a result of how they each handle their emotions following the murder of King Duncan. Although Macbeth was weak at first, it was the strong Lady Macbeth who helped him through the first murder, but in sacrifice to controlling Macbeth and his conscience, she lost control of her own and consequently became insane and committed suicide. Lady Macbeth repeatedly convinced her husband by questioning his manhood “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 1.7.54-56). She is a strong, powerful character in comparison to her easily influenced husband, until towards the end of the play where he seems to take on her role.

Despite his fearless character in battle, Macbeth is concerned by the prophecies of the Witches, and his thoughts remain confused, both before, during, and after his murder of King Duncan. When Duncan announces that he intends the kingdom to pass to his son Malcolm, Macbeth appears frustrated. When he is about to commit the murder, he undergoes terrible pangs of conscience. Macbeth is at his most human and considerate when his masculinity is ridiculed and degraded by his wife. However, Macbeth has resolved himself into a far more stereotypical villain and asserts his manliness over that of his wife. His ambition now begins to spur him toward further horrible deeds, and he starts to disregard and even to challenge fate. Nevertheless, the newfound resolve causes Macbeth to move onward.

The character of Macbeth is like a crazy girlfriend, they change so fast. Its starts out great, at one moment she's happy loving and flawless, then out of nowhere she becomes a psychotic crazy lunatic who tries to murder and kill everything that is in her path. Just like Macbeth, the people view him as a kind, courageous noble warrior. But we soon see that Macbeth becomes something that was unforeseeable, as the play unfolded these true traits are displayed. Unlike a crazy girlfriend, she only destroyed the boyfriend's life. While Macbeth's actions and and mind created a world where malice, ruthless and manipulation creates a world of tyranny. Where Macbeth's changes in the play destroyed his marriage and created his political career

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, the focus that is placed on the character of Lady Macbeth helps to convey the play's theme of the strife created by the struggle for power and control that is present throughout the entire work. Shakespeare presents her character in great detail and shows her to be a dominating, authoritative woman who thrives on the power she holds over her husband. He then shows the principle character, Macbeth, rise up and join his wife in a struggle for power of his own. It is the actions that Macbeth takes in attempt to achieve ultimate authority that lead to his downfall, and it is Lady Macbeth's loss of control over her husband as he gains this independence which causes her own

Macbeth is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, in the thirteenth century with historical facts and links from the eleventh century. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. It is about a Scottish general named Macbeth who receives a prophecy from a group witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Once he hears this, he becomes consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. The play demonstrates many different themes throughout the story such as the supernatural and magic, the power of women over men and psychological deterioration of the characters after the crimes they have committed.

In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth was the evil one in charge, making decisions for her and Macbeth. She was making decisions for her and Macbeth and forcing him to act upon them. She was the mastermind behind the killing of Duncan. In the beginning of the play Lady Macbeth represents evil by her actions and her wanting to be this way. In the beginning she asks the spirits to unsex her and make her more masculine and powerful. She wants to have her Make thick my blood. Stop up th’ access and passage to remorse, that no compunctious visitings of nature” (1.5.47-61). Lady Macbeth wants for her to not feel any remorse and to act upon what she thinks is right. She wants for Duncan to be killed and forces her husband to do so. She is the mastermind behind the killing of Duncan and causes Macbeth to make a complete change in character. Macbeth begins to not listen to her and starts to boss her around. This really affects Lady Macbeth and she does not know how to proceed. By the end of the play Lady Macbeth gives up on trying to control Macbeth and her evil ways. Lady Macbeth realizes that Macbeth is crazy and she can not control what he does. She then decides that the situation she is in with Macbeth is so bad that she has end her life. Her death is a defeat to her controlling evil ways.