Consequences of Ambition Ambitions can impact individuals in many different ways. An ambition can make people work hard to achieve their dreams and being successful. On the other hand, ambition can have negative characteristics such as greed, intolerance, and even power. People would do anything even neglect the needs of others to accomplish their reward. At times, it can change an individual’s whole personality. This can be evident in the play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, who sets out a life of a tragic hero, Macbeth, suffering many consequences because of his ambition. Macbeth is told a prophecy from three witches that he will be crowned king. As a result, Macbeth commit several antagonistic crimes to fulfill his prophecy. Macbeth’s ambition causes him to become overly confident, paranoid, and be mentally unstable. Macbeth’s overconfidence is one impact of his ambition to become king. Thus, Macbeth acts carelessly and starts losing his morality. Macbeth confidently states to Macduff, “Be bloody, bold, and resolute. Laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth”.(IV.i.L. 81-83) This demonstrates that Macbeth is not tainted with fear because he believes the prophecies are true. Macbeth recalls the witches prophecy, “‘Fear not, Macbeth. No man that’s born of woman / shall e’er have power upon thee,’” believing to be invulnerable to those that have been born of woman. This is important because he believes he can’t be
After Macbeth murdered King Duncan, paranoia quietly started creeping in. He thought that he “heard a voice cry, ‘Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep” - the innocent sleep” directly following the deed(2:2:53-56). As his paranoia increases, Macbeth convinces himself that being King “is nothing, but to be safely thus. . .[His] fears in Banquo stick deep, and in his royalty of nature reigns that which would be feared;” subsequently, Macbeth has revealed
Everyone has a quality that they do not like about themselves. Some people struggle to be social, others may be too controlling of people. The list goes on and on, but the point is that everybody has a particular quality that they must learn to control or else that particular quality can get out of hand. Of course, one could write a list of characters that have major flaws. There is no better example than William Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth, in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Anyone who has ever read it, could easily identify the fatal flaw that the character Macbeth possesses which is greed. Even though many readers can all agree that greed is Macbeth’s fatal flaw, the argument as to whether or not
As the play goes, Macbeth shows a character of free will. Although his destiny was pre-determined for him by the witches, he took action to believe and to make sure that his prophecies will come true. Macbeth is a strong character with many deep desires that include gaining power, and so throughout the play with the many crimes he had committed, there was no turning back for him. In all, his decisions help shape the future ahead of him.
Ambition and its impact on self and others greatly differ from one individual to another. In the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth is a character that is negatively influenced and controlled by his desire of becoming King of Scotland. His greed to achieve utmost power and authority upon the citizens of Scotland motivates him into killing Duncan. As Macbeth’s character starts to develop, he is seen as someone whose ambition corrupts his thinking and forces him to lose his sense of morality. After achieving his goal of becoming King, Macbeth’s ambition forces him to turn selfish and start to care less for his nation and more towards protecting his throne. When one allows their ambition to take control over them, it results in their
The crafty serpent appears next to Eve. The evil creature encourages her to eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, which God had specifically warned her not to do. The woman, unaware of the serpent’s true intentions, eats from the tree and gives some to Adam. Eventually, the pair realizes that they have been deceived by the snake, and they are consequently exiled from paradise. Sometimes acts which appear honest and good are really meant to mask the hidden desires of wicked people. These desires often have irreversible repercussions, which only accelerate the degeneration of morals and character. Throughout William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the idea of murderous actions and their dire consequences establishes the
In order for a person to want to succeed in life, that person must possess certain traits that will allow them to traverse any bumps that try and slow down their path. Traits such as pride and confidence will allow a person to succeed in life, but too much of either trait can be detrimental to a person. If a person becomes too proud or too confident, their ego will lead them to believe that they are untouchable, causing them to become comfortable with their situation and letting their guard down. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the main character, Macbeth, becomes too powerful for his own good, causing a significant change in his character from the beginning to the end of the play. As Macbeth’s character grows throughout the play, his lust for power, his fears, and his confidence lead him to act in a destructive way, leading Macbeth to his demise.
Since Macbeth believes that he must kill Duncan to achieve his goal of becoming king quickly, Macbeth subdues his feelings and thoughts to become more "masculine." From the start, Macbeth recognizes his need to separate his mind from his actions, because his mind overpowers his will to act. Macbeth has the capacity to perform the deeds necessary to achieve his goal; obviously, from the first description of him in the play describing his prowess on the battlefield, he can kill Duncan. However, he is unable to carry them out because he is too caught up in his imaginings. Therefore, instead of overthinking everything, he suppresses his thoughts and begins to act rashly. For instance, he kills Duncan 's guards spontaneously, and then plots the deaths of Macduff 's family, Banquo, and Fleance, without even consulting his wife. He expresses his need to carry out his actions without extended thought, saying, "Strange things I have in head, that will to hand, / Which must be acted ere they may be scanned" (3.4.141-2). This quote brings in elements of the meta-theatrical, since Macbeth 's plans "must be acted" by the player onstage. If they aren 't being performed onstage, then they are being read and "scanned," alluding to the analysis of the play through poetic scansion. Although we do not directly consider metrical elements in this paper, this line still refers to what we are currently doing—analyzing the play. Regardless of the medium through which we experience these lines, this
This quote means that the one who has complete authority is extremely likely to abuse his position. 'Absolute power' refers to complete, unchallengeable power where the holder has no external compulsions and is answerable to none about his actions. It builds on the idea that every human being has the potential to become a 'benevolent dictator' given the right situation. Power, or simply the desire for power, can cause people to act in unintelligible ways. Many examples can be seen throughout history of leaders who have been perverted with power. For example, leaders like Hitler and Napoleon have all committed disgraceful actions during their rule in the hopes of attaining the 'Absolute power'. All through the play Macbeth, the desire for 'Absolute power' is the central compelling force for Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. They are dominated with a great yearning for gaining the ultimate power by becoming the King and Queen, and are willing to achieve it by whatever means necessary. Power corrupts their thoughts, behaviours and actions. They become greedy and selfish. As a result of this, they suffer the tragic fate of their own doings. Example of this corruption is first seen when Lady Macbeth decides that she will murder Duncan after reading her husband's letter about the witches prophecies. She refuses to see the difference between right and wrong as she is blinded by the desire
Hubris is a Greek word that means overwhelming pride, as stated by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Thus, a person that is hubristic is one that is arrogant and has lot of pride and self-confidence. Holy teachings from the Christian church condemn hubris and emphasize that hubristic behaviors lead to eminent and disastrous downfalls. Various examples of teachings of anti-hubristic behavior can be found on the bible such as “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (Proverbs 3:34) and “Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5). Consequently, Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus and Shakespeare’s Macbeth are two stories that clearly depict the hubristic behavior that is condemned by the Christian church since both focus on human pride and thirst for power. Macbeth portrays more hubristic behavior than Doctor Faustus, although Doctor Faustus initially seems to be more hubristic than Macbeth.
“He who blinded by ambition, raises himself to a position whence he cannot mount higher, must fall with the greatest loss.” Niccolo Machiavelli means to say is that when driven by blind ambition, one will go to the highest rank possible and the only thing left for one to do is to fall. In Shakespeare’s most bloody and gory play “Macbeth”, the late Shakespeare correctly exemplifies the fact that if one is ambitious one will have the greatest downfall, and will suffer consequences. Macbeth a mighty and ambitious warrior from the medieval times, manipulated by the peculiar sisters’ prophecy, leads Macbeth into thinking he has a chance to become king. Due to Macbeth’s blind ambition, he becomes a gruesome killer. Macbeth performs several slaughters in order to achieve the throne. Lady Macbeth, who is just as ambitious, worked side by side with Macbeth so she could become queen, and she too takes part in all the slaughters. After all these murders Macbeth and Lady Macbeth becomes crazy and starts feeling guilty and share a common goal. In the end due to all the horrific things Macbeth and his wife have done to other people, they all decide to take revenge on them, thus leading to their deaths. Therefore if one is blindly ambitious, one will face costs.
Shakespeare’s Macbeth was first written and performed over four hundred years ago in the early seventeenth century. It has survived the tests of time and is now repeatedly being reproduced for cinematic viewing, from one of the most recent productions created in 2010 by director Rupert Goold, to an older more rustic film directed by Roman Polanski in 1971. However, lacking either detailed instructions or Shakespeare himself, each of these directors interpreted Shakespeare’s original work in different ways for their film, resulting in two very different portrayals of the same tragedy. One of the many ways the two productions differed was in their portrayals of the witches, who set the spark which ignited Macbeth’s flaming tyranny. Rupert Goold’s Macbeth showed the witches as powerful and conniving figures who were often on screen and had a direct part in how the events of the tragedy transpired, whereas Roman Polanski’s Macbeth incorporated the witches as frail yet confident characters who appeared much more seldom, creating a sense of mystery for the viewer as to what exactly their roles in the progression of the plot were.
In the play The Tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses satire as tone and irony as points of view to portray Macbeth’s unfortunately placed ambition and the manipulation that is used on him. His ambition to gain a higher status as king ends with consequences to himself and the others in his path. Shakespeare adds dramatic irony, verbal irony, and situational irony to keep the readers at the edge of their seats as well as engaged in each lie and mishap that Macbeth and his wife have to go through by will or by force. Satire is used to capture Macbeth’s confusion and doubt as well as the outcomes of his ambition.
Macbeth has undergone a transformation in this play in many ways. One way he has changed from the beginning is he used to be evil and now he has gotten more pride in himself. He says “fear not, Macbeth; no man that’s born of woman shall e’er have power upon thee” (act 1.3.5-6).
Macbeth is a tragedy written in the 17th century that shows what the desire for power can do to a man. Macbeth is expressed as being the villain. But, Macbeth is in fact a tragic hero, doomed by fate from the beginning into the madness he put himself in. If it not been for meeting the witches and persuasion of his wife, the play would have had a very different ending.
Great writers create great characters. In “The Tragedy of Macbeth” and “Hamlet” William Shakespeare describes his female characters without virtue. In “The Tragedy of Macbeth” Lady Macbeth forces her husband to do unthinkable things for her own personal gain therefore, showing that Lady Macbeth has no honor or virtue. In “Hamlet”, the Queen, Gertrude, does things without thinking about her son and how it will affect him and Hamlet’s lover, Ophelia, kills herself therefore showing that neither of them have virtue. Shakespeare uses characterization to describe how Gertrude, Ophelia, and Lady Macbeth are not virtuous.