The Theme Of Ambition In Lady Macbeth

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.

Timothy Leary once said, "Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition" (Peters 175). But is this true in the case of the classic play Macbeth? In Macbeth it seems to be, that Macbeth the protagonist of the play is influence by Lady Macbeth's ambition. Could this be an exception or was Lady Macbeth lying when she ask to be equal to a man so she could commit the murder (1.5.33.45-61). To understand one must look deeply into the plot and many themes of Macbeth. William Shakespeare uses ambition among other things to imply may different ideas. Thus, Macbeth's downfall is a direct cause of Lady Macbeth's goading and ambition.

Lady Macbeth is filled evil schemes, and knows how to achieve her goal of getting her husband into the kingly position. Lady Macbeth is very convincing in her ideas, and does not leave a lot of space to think otherwise. Macbeth is not left much choice but to conform himself to his wife’s mischievous strategy to get him to become king. He is very loyal, and wants to remain so to his king even knowing he would become king if Duncan, the present king, were to die. Lady Macbeth, however, has other plans for Macbeth, and she soon has him convinced to commit an act which will change their lives forever. Macbeth and his wife are truly opposite people, as Macbeth is laid back and easy going, while Lady Macbeth wants everything planned out and will go onward with plans no matter who they affect. She truly does make Macbeth a more interesting person through her evil schemes.

We have all made mistakes in our lives, things we cannot reverse. I personally have never made such a bad mistake its life-changing but we see this happen in MacBeth, a play written by William Shakespeare. It has many themes and insinuates several different messages.

The cast of Hamilton: The Musical once sang “ambition is my folly”. This quote, sung by Alexander Hamilton himself, was showing that having too much ambition will lead to your downfall in life. One character that comes to mind when hearing the word, ambition, is Macbeth from the Shakespearean play Macbeth by non other than William Shakespeare. Macbeth follows the story of a former general named Macbeth who goes crazy with greed and power and does anything to remain king, even murder. Although Macbeth's journey to becoming king may seem simple, it was full of not only emotional but physical triumphs. Throughout the book, Macbeth’s ambition is driven by numerous factors including: the prophecy of the witches, Lady Macbeth, and wanting to stay king.

Lady Macbeth understands Macbeth’s lust for the throne, and lusts for it herself. She also understands his ambition, but feels that her husband might regret and decide against killing Duncan to steal his throne, as she regards to Macbeth as “full o’ the milk of human kindness” (1.5.4). Since Lady Macbeth fears that Macbeth would turn against her and not go through with the plan, she decides that it must be up to her to get it done correctly. She asks that only the “direst cruelty” (1.5.33) fill her, as she gathers everything that is evil to her in order to murder Duncan. Even though Macbeth was hesitant over the idea of murdering Duncan, his wife convinces him that acting on his impulse of killing Duncan is the right thing to do. This shown when Macbeth starts to second guess the thought of murdering his king, and that it should not be done. However, his wife verbally harasses him into agreeing. Lady Macbeth questions his love for her, questions his masculinity, and criticizes his desire to be king by saying, “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” (1.5.49-51). As his successfully offends him, he decides that he needs to prove his manhood, his love of his wife, and his ambition to be king, he agrees to murder Duncan.

Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill king Duncan, so she can live her dream life. “And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man”(Macbeth 1.7.50-51). This quote explains how Lady Macbeth is trying to persuade her husband in doing the death of king Duncan. One characteristic that sticks out about lady Macbeth, Is that she is a smooth talker to whom she knows she can convince in doing what she won’t do. She tells Macbeth what he wants to hear for her own fame. “And we’ll not fail. When Duncan is asleep”(Macbeth 1.7.61). While Macbeth is shocked and frightened about Lady Macbeth’s thoughts. She explains to him that king Duncan’s death will not be known of them, As why they do it while he is sleeping. Lady Macbeth tells him the future they will have if he does her plan. Now Scotland gets turned upside down. Macbeth kills king Duncan against his will. Lady Macbeth talked Macbeth into killing king Duncan so she would not have to live with the quilt of doing the murder. Lady Macbeth’s plan starts to unravel, As they hear a voice from another room. Macbeth is so out of sorts, that he has left the bloody dagger he use to kill king Duncan at the scene of

As a result, she stated the following, “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood.” Through this she begs the spirits to take away any sympathy within in her in order to have the wit, desire, and drive her husband lacked of in order to become royalty. Through Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare shows there’s no such thing as impossible on the way to getting what one wants. In addition to giving up her femininity, Lady Macbeth also sacrifices her morals by convincing her husband to kill the king, when failing to do so; she states, “When you durst do it, then you were a man.” In other words she convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan, despite knowing what a horrid crime that was. The struggle to go through anything standing in her way caused her to lose herself as well as her sanity. After realizing what she had caused, she began to lose her mind. She would constantly see her hands covered in blood by those who had been murdered along the way. Unable to get rid of the image in her head, led her to eventually commit suicide.

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.

The motives that led Lady Macbeth to want her husband to kill Duncan with her, was because she wanted her husband to be a successful king. When Macbeth got back from war, she decided to become very vicious and decide she wanted to be the most murderous, most brave, most raw killer anyone has ever seen. “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direct cruelty! Make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse. that no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose”

Lady Macbeth performs to lure attention away from Macbeth. Her actions divulge her hideous treachery in persuading Macbeth to commit a sickening crime. In Scene 3, she takes centre stage twice and acts upon it to prove innocent and attempts to cover up for Macbeth. She faints. Except, it’s all to cover up the condescendence.

As a reader , that information from the story. It raises a red flag because first off, because she was a woman in an Era where women never said very much, for the reader it was a bit of a shocker. Lady Macbeth was so power driven that she forgets the time that she was living in, and as the reader , we became anxious to see the way she handle the situation. While Macbeth is away in the battle he visits three witches who told him that he is destined to be a king. His ambitions became known as his plan comes together, but he quickly begins to back down when it was time to kill Duncan. Macbeth starts backpedaling saying things like, “if chance will have me , king, why, chance may crown me” (Act 1, Scene 3). He is basically saying if it’s his destiny

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.

Ambition, a trait which underlines success, but while unchecked can lead to self or societal corruption. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, “Macbeth”, a brave general falls into tyranny and paranoia after he acts immorally upon the witches prophecies. Macbeth’s pursuit of long lasting power reveals the consequences of hubris and unchecked ambition, which ultimately leads to the the deterioration of his human nature and the corruption of the kingdom. Through the use of thematic motif, the theme of Macbeth’s unchecked ambition and hubris is examined through his struggle to alter and actuate fate, his haunting hallucinations, and the apparitions.