The longing for power can seem to be that empty hole that anyone would try to fill inside themselves, but one should always be careful what they wish for, because as we can see in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Macbeth’s ascension to the throne of Scotland is unlike the typical reign of a monarch in any country for that matter. The rising glory of Macbeth is primarily what this play focuses on, but there are several steps Macbeth must take to reach his desired destination. There are multiple aspects that lead to Macbeth becoming king, but in actuality, there are three key ideas that are the most compelling. The first of these three factors happens to be Macbeth’s ambitions just in general, especially in early parts of the play before the …show more content…
Ever since Macbeth finds out about the witches’ prophecies, we can see that something inside of him changes, and he wants to be more than just the Thane of Cawdor. This is evident when the witches tell Banquo and him, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!” (Shakespeare 1.3.53). After this moment Macbeth turns into a completely different person, because now his thoughts dwell on this prophecy, and he cannot stop thinking about it. These thoughts compose of him being the king and the potential path that he will take to become king. Furthermore, we can see this when Macbeth leaves to prepare for Duncan’s arrival, “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step / On which I must fall down, or else overleap, / For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires! / Let not light see my black and deep desires.” (1.4.56-59). This quotation overall sums up the argument better than any other in the play because Macbeth says overleap, meaning he can build higher upon the title, Prince of Cumberland. He also says, hide your fires, which is referring to the treasonous actions that he is planning. The final line in this quotation was the most impactful because Macbeth is saying he doesn’t want anyone to see his dark mind and the evil thoughts that are inside his head. It was throughout the first couple of scenes in act one where Macbeth’s true ambitions were at a display, and the text from these passages evidently proves how his ambitions hasten his rise to the
People have a hard time getting what they want; in fact, the things they want can be incompatible with each other and any attempt to reach one of these goals hurt the other. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1606), the protagonist is lured to murder the king, Duncan, by the desire for power, an appetite whetted by witch’s prophecies and his wife’s encouragement. But when he reaches the kingship, he finds himself insecure. He attempts to remove threats that decrease his security, including his companion Banquo and his son Fleance, prophesied to be king. His lords grow angry and revolt successfully, after witches lure Macbeth into a false sense of security by further foretelling. In Macbeth, we see that, despite appearances of paradox, man’s goals of comfort and power are forever opposed in increment, though the two may decline together.
“Macbeth” is an age-old tragedy by, William Shakespeare, that tells the story of the disastrous down fall of Scotland and it’s Kings. The protagonist, Macbeth, starts out as a thriving Thane in Scotland, but ends up destroying his own prosperity as well as Scotland’s. Certain witches who tell people their fate convince Macbeth that he will be King and that his dear friend Banquo’s children will be kings. In an effort to be sure his prophecy is true and with some encouragement from his rash wife, he kills King Duncan, the current king of Scotland. To continue on this path of destruction Macbeth, acts on impulse and has his friend Banquo killed, because he is afraid that he killed Duncan for someone else’s fortune. Throughout the play Macbeth’s degeneration continues until the tragic ending when the country turns against him and seizes his castle. Macbeth’s demise can be attributed to his abandoning his belief in fate for a need to prove his masculinity.
During a low point in Macbeth’s life he faces struggles with power, ambition and the thoughts of death surrounding him. Grabbing ahold of him strongly he is shown many ideas that are very promising at first, especially when the witches tell him of all of the control he could have, he wants the power, the fame and will do anything to get it. In act 1, scene 3, lines 140-145 Macbeth is recalling a conversation with the witches which brings about a thought in him of murder and the ambition to kill Duncan. Creating this supremacy trip that we see later, almost causing total insanity. In this we see Macbeth come across three of the major themes in the play, power, death and ambition as he struggles to make the right decision with what the three witches tell him.
Macbeth, a classic tragedy, is perhaps one of the most recognised pieces in english literature by playwright, William Shakespeare. In Macbeth, Shakespeare successfully explores a diverse range of key themes within the play, however, Shakespeare precisely represents power as a divine right with which one should not tamper with, lest disaster ensue. The representation of power clearly reflects the socio-cultural views of the Elizabethan era, and hence, the audience can successfully foreshadow Macbeth’s usurp of the Scottish throne will ultimately lead to his destruction caused by his hubristic actions. Macbeth’s vaulting ambition has lead to his illegitimate power that epitomises additional representations of power as being transitory, easily
Macbeth feeds off on the rewards of success as it satisfies him with new titles, fame, and royal favor. He seeks to please with no malicious intent and grabs attention from many. Although he wants people to look up to him and potentially desires power, his independent self never shows ideas of heinous methods to achieve such cravings. He asserts to the king his noble deeds, “The service and the loyalty I owe / In doing it, pays itself.” (1.4, 10) Macbeth, without fetter, finds himself doing wha...
In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth has a very strong ambition to be the king of Scotland. His credulousness leads him to believing the prophecy from the three witches without thinking rigorously. Because of this prophecy, Macbeth is willing to do everything he can to gain the throne, even to the extreme of murdering someone, which in turn causes his insanity. Shakespeare uses syntax, similes, and personification to convey the evolution of Macbeth’s insanity.
Macbeth is presented as a mature man of definitely established character, successful in certain fields ofactivity and enjoying an enviable reputation. We must notconclude, there, that all his volitions and actions arepredictable; Macbeth's character, like any other man's at agiven moment, is what is being made out of potentialitiesplus environment, and no one, not even Macbeth himself, canknow all his inordinate self-love whose actions arediscovered to be-and no doubt have been for a long time-determined mainly by an inordinate desire for some temporalor mutable good. Macbeth is actuated in his conduct mainly by aninordinate desire for worldly honors; his delight liesprimarily in buying golden opinions from all sorts of people.But we must not, therefore, deny him an entirely humancomplexity of motives. For example, his fighting in Duncan'sservice is magnificent and courageous, and his evident joy init is traceable in art to the natural pleasure whichaccompanies the explosive expenditure of prodigious physicalenergy and the euphoria which follows. He also rejoices nodoubt in the success which crowns his efforts in battle - andso on. He may even conceived of the proper motive whichshould energize back of his great deed: The service and the loyalty I owe, In doing it, pays itself.But while he destroys the king's enemies, such motives workbut dimly at best and are obscured in his consciousness bymore vigorous urges. In the main, as we have said, his natureviolently demands rewards: he fights valiantly in order thathe may be reported in such terms a "valour's minion" and"Bellona's bridegroom"' he values success because it bringsspectacular fame and new titles and royal favor heaped uponhim in public.
Macbeth possesses almost none of the ‘‘king becoming graces’’ , except for courage, but as his kind of courage is better suited to the battlefield, he cannot deal with political intrigue very well, driving him to tyranny as well.
Macbeth is a man who at first seems content to defend his king and country against treason and rebellion. However, when he is told of a prophecy by the witches, which implies that he will become Thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland, it seems to spark Macbeth's already existing evil desires inside his head. It is Banquo who first responds to the prophecy of the witches because Macbeth is so deep in thought ‘My noble partner/You greet with present grace and great prediction/Of noble having and of royal hope/That he seems rapt withal.’, so it seems that the witches initiate Macbeth’s inner conflict and ambition for power as he struggles between good and evil.
MacBeth meets three witches in his war camp at Forres, Scotland. The witches present MacBeth and his companion Banquo with a prophecy - they are to be kings. The supernatural nature of witches and prophecy in an otherwise worldly setting can easily be attributed to a daylight hallucination due to delusional or paranoid schizophrenia. In this regard, I will concede and compromise with the mental illness theory; MacBeth received this prophecy not from a supernatural trinity of sisters, but as an internal premonition after victory in battle. In other words, after a battle that was considered by the minor Captain character to be as memorable as the site of Christ’s crucifixion, MacBeth’s sense of importance, vanity, and pride implanted in his id a notion not that he would be king, but that he should be king. All later mentions of the witches later in the play are merely references to this ambition. In this regard, the prophecy upon which the tragedy is based is given to MacBeth not by a hallucination caused by an unmentioned mental illness, but by an idea implanted in his subconscious by a swollen sense of pride and importance. Rather than hallucinatory schizophrenia or delusions, MacBeth suffers from the more realistic human condition; specifically pride and its effect of man’s sense of importance and
Seeking for greater power, Macbeth murders Duncan who is the king at that time, which caused a great pain for the kingdom. Duncan is a great king, but just not a so good human reader. He has never been aware of Macbeth. He never have a thought that Macbeth might be a danger, who is willing to kill him for the throne. On the other hand, Macbeth does not accept to be just a general for the rest of his life. He wants a greater power, higher position than he is having at the time. Because of the suggests from the trio witches: “ All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!/ All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!”(1.2.49-50), Macbeth has the thinking about killing the king to take his throne. By calling Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor, they give Macbeth the thought that being a king is his fate. On the night Macbeth is planning to murder Duncan, the Old Man see many strange events: “And Duncan’s horses (a thing most strange and certain),/ Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race, /Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out/ Contending ‘gainst obedience, as they would/ Make war with mankind” (2.4.14-18). It creates a scary feeling in the kingdom, and means something bad will happen to the kingdom.
The three witches prophecy at the beginning of the play sparks Macbeth’s ambition. The prophecy says that, “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!/ All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (1.3.54-55). Because the witches say that Macbeth will be crowned king after he becomes Thane of Cawdor, makes him believe that he does not have to put any work into becoming king. Macbeth is then given the title Thane of Cawdor, which sets his mind up to doing whatever he has to do to become king. Upon Macbeth wanting to become king he says “I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/ And all falls on the other.” (1.7.26-29). Macbeth is simply saying that he is truly only motivated through his ambition at the moment, because if he rushes ahead of himself, he will lead himself to disaster. Which is foreshadowing the future because, Macbeth rushes ahead of himself with his wanting of the crown, and it causes him to lead himself to disaster. Macbeth then says in an aside “If chance will have me King, why,/ Chance may crown me,/ Without my stir.” (1.3.165-167.) Macbeth believes that fate has everything to do with him becoming king, and he will not have to do anything to receive that title.
Macbeth, who at the beginning of his play’s plot is in a position of some honor and power, obtains position as king of Scotland through secretive foul play, spurred on by some external manipulation as well as personal ambition. “Macbeth’s ambition is unchecked by both moral and legal considerations-he will stop at nothing to get what he desires… Macbeth’s unbridled ambition is the root of the play’s evil because he is willing to throw the world into chaos in order to satisfy his personal desires.” (Thrasher, 92). His rebellion is heinous, but so long undiscovered. His ambition, though present in some degree from the beginning, metastasizes within him through the play as more obstacles to his retention of royal status crop up. “He begins well…but this...
The temptation Macbeth faces can be seen as his willingness to believe and defend his ‘manifest destiny’ to become King as has been fated by the three witches and the manipulations of his wife, Lady Macbeth. Although Macbeth knows the difference between right and wrong, his ‘moral compass’ fails him in the face of these temptations to fulfill ‘his...
Another vital part of a tragedy is that the main character will have a flaw in him that will later lead to his demise. In Macbeth his flaw is that he wants power. “ The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down or else o’erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars hide your fires; let not light see my blank and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand, yet let that be which the eye fear, when it is done, to see.”(29) Having heard the prophecy that he will be king, Macbeth looks for ways to make it happen more quickly. We see both Macbeth's potential for greatness and his obsessive aspirations. He has vaulting ambitions and knows that Duncan and Malcom both stand in the way.