Macbeth shows how greed and ambition can bring down a person as well as others and how the changes of power occur because of loyalty and betrayal. Macbeth is the play’s main unhappy character. The play tells of Macbeth's greedy thirst for power is a dangerous trait. The play begins with Macbeth being a benevolent person. Later in the play Macbeth began to kill when he was in battles and I believe this is where his inner turmoil began. King Duncan awarded Macbeth the title of Thane of Cawdor due to his loyalty and killing a high level conspirator to Scotland. The three witches who predicted Macbeth would be king gave him a lot more ambition to make this prediction come true. With this prediction hanging on his heart and the want to be more than he currently was, Macbeth realized that the completion of the prophecy may require scheme and murder on his part. Macbeth was still faithful and wanted to share everything with his wife. Lady Macbeth was so influential when it came to her husband. She frequently asserted many notions into her husband head that it changed him. Macbeth would not speak of killing the king, but now he was considering it. Macbeth was given reassurance in this concept when he was bestowed the title, king, killing the Duncan, and not being caught. He let the power finally wash over his morals and …show more content…
Neither character had the opportunity to enjoy what they had achieved. Shakespeare shows to the audience how power can take a person to unforeseen heights in the world but at the same time make them more exposed to the unforeseen threats and attacks to one’s character. Shakespeare demonstrates, it is more satisfying to work hard at meeting your goals fairly, than to achieve them through dishonesty. No one should jeopardize their morality and ethics to get ahead. Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts
William Shakespeare's play Macbeth is a five-act drama that shows a clear example of how pride, greed, and power can alter a man's actions and personality. The taste of power blinds the story's main character, Macbeth. Sparked by Lady Macbeth, he becomes heartless and cruel as he kills anyone who is a threat to his power due to his paranoia of losing the throne. This fear ironically leads to his downfall and loss of the throne. The theme of the story is deceit and evil and how they affect a man's decisions.
...n is a great man and he did not want to kill him. He even mentions this to Lady Macbeth later. Once Macbeth kills Duncan the greed from his ambition overwhelms him. He is only worried about his well being and does not love his wife anymore. “She should have died hereafter” (Shakespeare, Macbeth 5.5 line 17). In this line he shows no emotion to his wife having died. He even said that he forgot his sense of fear. “I have almost forgot the taste of fears…my senses would have cooled to hear a night-shriek, and fell my hair would at dismal treatise rouse and stir as life were in ‘t”(Shakespeare Macbeth 5.5 9-13). Macbeth explains how he would react when he used to be scarred in certain situations. Overall at the start of the drama readers see Macbeth as a hero and someone they could look up to. Towards the end of the drama Macbeth is a tyrant and has antihero qualities.
Because of the witches’ prophecies, Lady Macbeth’s ambition and Macbeth’s greed, Macbeth diverges from his values and principles, corrupting him and ultimately leading to his downfall. Because of their greed and pride, the characters in the Tragedy of Macbeth end up not only losing everything that was important to them, but also the path on life they had tried so hard to stay on. Greed and pride shatters the fate that one would have had, whether fate is defined as where one would want to end up, or as where one will end up at.
There are myriad fine lines in life, seemingly unattainable happy mediums that we endeavour to find, and spectrums that we attempt to exist in between. As sentient beings, we are continually evolving, and yet we are always searching for something that will remain constant in our often haphazard lives: Balance. Without it, one may see structure within their life deteriorate, as an overwhelming sense of chaos begins to percolate day to day existence. When we fail to achieve balance, adverse effects soon transpire. In William Shakespeare’s tragic play Macbeth, the type of balance being discussed is that of ambition and pride. The author suggests that ambition and pride are both respectable qualities to possess, and can coexist within a person
Ambition is frequently seen as desirable - it provides purpose, motivation to work hard, and a goal to strive towards. Yet it also has a dangerous side, when it becomes too great and out of control. Although ambition is often positive, an excess of it can have detrimental effects. This unrestrained ambition is predominant in the tragedy Macbeth. In this play, Shakespeare employs the use of hallucination, blood, and prophecy motifs to emphasize the theme of ambition, which, when goes unchecked by moral constraints, wreaks destruction upon an individual. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth hallucinate, which propels the consequences of ambition. Blood is shed in the pursuit of ambition, when desire for power overwhelms morality. Ambition is further
Where is there a page in William Shakespeare's tragic play Macbeth which does not present the selfish virtue of personal ambition. This paper addresses the problem of ambition in the drama.
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a kind and gentle person. The only time he killed is when he was in battle. Macbeth was loyal to the King (Duncan), and did as he wished. In battle, he kills a traitor to the Scotland who was a high ranking individual. For killing the traitor so bravely, Macbeth is awarded the title the Thane of Cawdor. The irony of this situation is that the title first did indeed belonged to 'a most disloyal traitor'(pg. 3, line 53). As Macbeth heads home with his new title and a lot more ambition. This is mainly because of the three witches who tell him he will be king. With this new ambition, Macbeth did not know what to think and he wrote a letter to his wife. By Macbeth writing this letter it showed at this stage he was still loyal because he still was sharing everything with his wife. Macbeth at this point still did not have a lust for power.
Before the murder of King Duncan, Macbeth was a brave, noble warrior. “For brave Macbeth well he deserves that name… Till he unseamed him from the nave to th’ chop and fixed his head upon our battlements” (Act I, Scene 2, lines 2). He was one of the last people anyone would expect to kill King Duncan. Shakespeare chooses a noble character such as Macbeth, to emphasize how greed and power can alter a person’s good morals. In Act one we start to see Macbeth’s desire for more power rise. “Stars, hide your fires; Let no light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hond yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done to see” (Act I, Scene 4, lines 52- 55). His desire for power is at war with his good morals. He wants to become king but does not want to kill Duncan.
The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition The main theme of Macbeth - the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints - finds its most powerful expression in the play's two main characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play, he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness.
Ambition can be a good thing for success if used in the right way. In Macbeth, Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s ambition caused the death of Duncan, Banquo, and many others to allow Macbeth to keep the crown. In the end, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth suffered downfalls that led to their death. Malcolm, Duncan’s son, was then crowned King of Scotland. The overall thematic concept that we used for our poster is ambition. The movie poster and its symbols reflect the audience’s emotions that they will have throughout the story visually. The symbols show images that appear within the novel of Macbeth. Symbolic colors were also used to add more characteristics to the symbolic images. Ambition was the core of the novel, and is shown in many quotes of Macbeth.
In the play of “Macbeth”, Shakespeare gradually and effectively deepens our understanding of the themes and most importantly the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The main theme of Macbeth is ambition, and how it compels the main characters to pursue it. The antagonists of the play are the three witches, who symbolise the theme appearance and reality. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s relation is an irony throughout the play, as most of their relation is based on greed and power. This is different from most of Shakespeare’s other plays, which are mostly based on romance and trust. There is also guilt that leads Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to the final consequences of the play. As the progresses, the constant changes in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are exposed.
Shakespeare demonstrates how extreme levels of lust and desire not only leads to a loss of humanity, but also the loss of character and personality in the story Macbeth. Macbeth’s desire to gain absolute power causes an immense change in his personality. “let not
Words are the basic elements of the English written language. With words, one can say precisely what one wants to say, a skill that Shakespeare has mastered. In Macbeth, he carefully chooses each word so as to say exactly what he wants to say, and often leaves these words open to the reader’s interpretation. One such carefully chosen word is the word “slave,” a simple word meaning “someone entirely under the dominion of a person or an influence” (Random House, 674). Although this word appears only four times within the play, it’s importance should not be underestimated. Every time that Shakespeare chooses to use the word “slave” he is using it to show a “slave of ambition,” an important symbol within the play.
William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, first published in 1606, is an endearing tale outlining the dangers of unchecked ambition and moral betrayal. In the subsequent centuries after first being performed, Macbeths critics have been divided upon whether Macbeth himself was irrevocably evil, or if he was guided by the manipulation and actions of the women in the play to his ultimate demise. Although Lady Macbeth and the witches were influential with their provocations in the opening acts, it is ultimately Macbeth’s inherent immorality and his vaulting ambition, that result in the tragic downfall. It was Macbeth’s desire for power that abolished his loyalty and trustworthiness and led him down a path of murder. It is evident through his actions and words
In Macbeth, Shakespeare confronts audiences with universal and powerful themes of ambition and evil along with its consequences. Shakespeare explores the powerful theme of the human mind’s decent into madness, audiences find this theme most confronting because of its universal relevance. His use of dramatic devices includes soliloquies, animal imagery, clear characterisation and dramatic language. Themes of ambition and mental instability are evident in Lady Macbeth’s reaction to Macbeth’s letter detailing the prophecies, Macbeth’s hallucinations of Banquo’s ghost and finally in the scene where Lady Macbeth is found sleep walking, tortured by her involvement.