Ella Shepard Madison Billings Honors English B 8 May 2023 How Macbeth's Ambition Was A Tragic Spiral into Darkness In Shakespeare's book Macbeth, the main character Macbeth’s ambition ultimately leads to his downfall. Ambition can be two faced. It can make us achieve great things, but also it can lead to negative effects: The negative effects of ambition include mental health issues, relationship problems, and even death. In this play ambition was a negative force in the play. Ambition can negatively affect your mental health, as shown by Macbeth's desire to be king of Scotland, which becomes an obsession, and he goes baffling. His ambition leads him to be involved in and kill Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff's family. His ambition is blinding him …show more content…
Even though Macbeth acts like a tough character. Banquo's ghost haunts him in (3.4.). This starts revealing Macbeth's guilt from past actions. He loses a sense of reality and starts to get false visions, which make him become paranoid and schizophrenic. Atheists are negatively affecting his mental health and causing him to act in an irregular manner. Macbeth's ambition ruined many of his relationships. In good or healthy relationships, we prioritize our goals over our relationships, ultimately resulting in a lack of success on both sides. Macbeth's ambition led him to be involved with and murder many of his close friends. This led to ruin relationships with his friends and many around him who knew or disliked him. In (2.2.63-64)) Lady Macbeth says, “My hands are of your color, but I am ashamed to wear a heart so white.” Lady Macbeth shames Macbeth for behaving weakly. She says that when Macbeth tried to go through with the murder, he was unsuccessful. Lady Macbeth had to follow through with what Macbeth did not finish. She was the one who had to carry the weight of the murder on her
Shakespeare presents the theme of ambition in Macbeth. Ambition is a strong desire to do or achieve something, ambition can also be presented in a positive and negative way. Shakespeare presents ambition in a negative way through some characters who are Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and King Duncan. The reason these characters present ambition in a negative way is because they end up dying. Ambition is also present in a positive way through some characters who are Macduff, Witches and Malcolm these are the characters who survive in the play showing that you can be ambitious but not too ambitious.
Both greed and power, if not controlled, can lead to destruction. Throughout William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses both characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to demonstrate how ambition can change one’s personal relationships. As in the beginning of Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth do not share the same ambition, and it is because of this that their relationship lacks love and affection however through the use of persuasion and other means, Lady Macbeth is able to get Macbeth to pursue her ambition. This not only changes their relationship drastically but it also changes Macbeth’s attitude towards ambition. Throughout the play, Shakespeare shows us through Macbeth, the possibility for ambition to eventually turn into greed and how the lust for power may corrupt us.
It is often unbeknownst to society on the long term effect that ambition has on clouding an individual’s perspective and the altercations it will have on their story. In the play, Macbeth, written by William Shakespere, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are power-driven individuals who scheme to reign over Scotland. Moral strength can be temporarily broken down due to someone's personal egos and desires. Despite this, guilt is as equally overriding as ambition is, and one’s conscience will negatively impact them. This guilt can cause hopelessness, and eventually, destiny will play out the way it is meant to.
Throughout Shakespeare's Macbeth there are many examples of ambition leading to negative outcomes. This can be seen in the murders of King Duncan and Banquo. After two of the witches' prophecies become true, Macbeth is determined to do anything he can to become king. “Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires (1.4.50-51).” In this quote, it is evident that Macbeth’s ambition is causing him to do things he knows are wrong.
Ambition can be like a tool, useful for building the person we want to be and what life we want to live. Just like a tool, however, ambition can be misused; left unchecked the consequences can be dire. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the nobleman Macbeth betrays several of his closest allies in a reach for power, slowly distorting his worldview and humanity. Throughout, Shakespeare perfectly demonstrates this corruption of mind and soul through Macbeth’s interactions with other characters, his personal experiences, and his attitude towards life as a whole. Upon first meeting Macbeth, he comes across as a run of the mill noble who’s well mannered and long-winded in speech.
He recognizes that his ambition causes him to be torn between his duty and his desire. After Macbeth kills King Duncan, he starts to feel guilty and distances himself from his wife, Lady Macbeth, who had been the one pushing him to commit the murder. His loyalty to her is put in question as he starts to doubt her role in his actions. Eventually, Macbeth chooses to ignore her advice, which leads to their downfall. He says, "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood / Clean from my hand?
At the end of the play Macbeth ambition was too big and it made him went to the wrong path which led to his death. First reason, Macbeth was thinking about murdering the king and it’s not a good choice. Then he finally did his unforgivable move which is kill the king when the king was visiting his castle. He couldn’t control himself because his ambition was getting too big and it swallow him. A quote in the play said ”
Ambition is defined as a strong desire to achieve something. Ambition is normally a really good thing to have, because it motivates you to reach a goal that you have set. But in this case, Macbeth had way too much ambition and so he was willing to go to any length to reach his goal, which was to become king. Another reason why Macbeth’s ambition is bad is because he wants to be king for the wrong reasons. The reason he wants to be king is not to make Scotland better, or change some things he feels are not right.
Ambition is a natural part of human existence, every person has it at least a little. It is when ambition grows too large and takes control of us that it becomes dangerous. It becomes obsessive and soon nothing will stop the person obsessed. Just by looking around at our world today, one can clearly see the results of unchecked ambition. Unchecked ambition can be destructive to a society and cause the society's downfall.
In William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth begins as a man of integrity and is a noble man. Infact he was one of the king’s favorite fighters and subjects. But over time Macbeth becomes corrupt once the power and the crown are his. Macbeth first becomes power thirsty when he and Banquo were given a prophecy by the three weird sisters. The theme ambition shows up frequently in the character Macbeth, especially when it has some relation to murder and the throne, to get the throne to begin with, some examples are when he killed King Duncan, Macduff’s family and Banquo, to keep the throne.
One of the central ideas surrounding ambition in Macbeth is the corrupting influence it can have on the innocent. Macbeth's unrelenting ambition leads him to commit increasingly awful acts, such as murdering the king and Banquo, his friend. Shakespeare uses Macbeth's downfall to illustrate how ambition, when not compared with morality, can lead to the end. This idea is not limited to just the play, as history has shown
To conclude, ambition is a powerful force. It can be fueled by visions of power and lead people to change. This is best seen in MacBeth's character dynamic character. He changes from a good person, to someone who will kill anyone in his way to
What is ambition? Ambition is the determination to achieve one’s goals. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare the protagonist, Macbeth, possesses ambition, which led to his downfall. In the play Macbeth’s ambition is driven by prophecies from witches and his wife’s aspiration. Ambition caused Macbeth to commit multiple homicides and after those wrongdoings Macbeth is left with nothing.
Everyone had that moment where they desire to do or achieve something. However, one can either choose to accept the challenge and take on their ambition head on or disregard it. In the play Macbeth, ambition is one of the major themes that keep the story alive and going. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth vicious desire to become king and queen keeps the audience on their feet, waiting for their next moves. Ambition can also be used as a weapon as we see in Macbeth by the witches.
A common action that ambition causes people to do includes betraying others. In the story of Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the character Macbeth kills both King Duncan, under whom he was a general, and another fellow general, Banquo, in order to become and sustain being king (Shakespeare). Provided that Macbeth’s ambition to become ruler led him to kill two of his close allies confirms that ambition forces people to carry out ruinous actions that can end with more hurting than helping — just as it did for Macbeth, who died trying to accomplish his ambition. In addition to betrayal, ambition also causes people to strongly crave superiority. This can also happen in other species too.