Ambition In Macbeth

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The desire for success or fame engulfs individuals’ lives and drive their every need. In William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, ambition controls the lives of the characters. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s ambition cloud their judgment and lead to their downfall. Both characters use a negative ambition to make decisions and commit actions.
Macbeth’s hunger for power triggers his tragic flaw, ambition. He is on a high from murdering Macdonwald. The king praises him, “o valiant cousin! worthy gentleman!” (Shakespeare I, ii) and this gets to his head. He is named Thane of Cawdor but Macbeth wants more, and he is willing to execute atrocious actions to obtain it. “He shows at the beginning of the play that he knows right from wrong, and chooses to do wrong without being able to justify it to himself” (No Fear Shakespeare). His ambition causes him to commit actions he never would have such as killing people that are close to him. …show more content…

Macbeth “… [is] driven to crime by the promptings of his wife” (Bloom) since she is just as greedy and deceiving as her husband. All Lady Macbeth has to do is convince her husband that killing the king will be beneficial. Macbeth decides that “with [King Duncan’s] surcease, success” (Shakespeare I, vii). The two of them do not care if King Duncan is dead, they only have their eyes set on taking over his position and power. They feed off of each other's greed, making excuses as to why they should go through with the horrible actions they think of. Her greed and desire sparked his and makes him want to perpetrate sins he did not want to

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