In human society there are different rank and class systems that distinguish groups of people. Ambition -- the quest for power – is an internal drive that is embedded in every one of us. It motivates us to improve ourselves. Ambition can lead to corruption as in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, where the main character Macbeth is driven by his ambition and eventually becomes corrupt. Macbeth chooses to let ambition override his humanity in order to achieve and maintain the throne which ultimately leads to his and Scotland’s down fall.
Initially, Macbeth is a loyal, courageous subject of the King of Scotland, but he is also a man who harbors a hidden ambition for power. At a military camp near the king’s palace at Forres, a wounded captain describes for King Duncan of Scotland how "brave Macbeth” plunged fearlessly into the Scottish Civil War while “Disdaining Fortune" (1.2.16-17) slayed the traitorous Macdonwald, rebel leader of the Irish invaders. The captain’s report of Macbeth’s bravery and loyalty in battle is immediately contradicted by Macbeth’s obvious fixation upon the witches’ prophecy revealing his great ambition. After hearing the witches’ prophecy of him becoming king “Macbeth comes to regard the witches' promise of the crown in the light of a contract with fate” (Cohen) , Banquo observed him to "start" like one that "seem[s] to "fear/Things that do sound so fair" (1.3.49-50). This is the “reaction of a guilty man who has heard his secret thoughts divined and spoken out.” (Cohen) “Thus the Weird Sisters are not true arbiters of fate, but merely devilish spirits whose function is to plant seeds of temptation into the souls of people already inclining toward sin and despair.” (Cohen). Macbeth becomes Thane of Caw...
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...his wife's advice in murdering Duncan. Macbeth knew the risks he was taking and ended up being the cause of his own demise.
Works Cited
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Some will argue that all the choices made by Macbeth were continuously his own, that he had these opportunities as a man to put his foot down and say no, and be able to draw the line where things should come to an end, the
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In the early 1600’s, William Shakespeare penned an Aristotelian tragedy ‘Macbeth’ which provides his audiences both then and now with many valuable insights and perceptions into human nature. Shakespeare achieves this by cleverly employing many dramatic devices and themes within the character of ‘Macbeth’. Macbeth is depicted as an anti-hero; a noble protagonist with a tragic flaw that leads to his downfall. This tragic flaw of Macbeth’s, heavily laden with the themes of ‘fate or free will’, and ‘ambition’, is brought out by Shakespeare in his writing to present us with a character whose actions and final demise are, if not laudable, very recognisable as human failings.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 7th ed. New York: Longman, 1999.
Shakespeare, William, and John Crowther. No Fear Shakespeare: Macbeth. ed. New York: Spark Publishing, 2003. Print.
Chute, Lily B. "Macbeth : A Study in Power." Readings on Macbeth. Ed. Clarice Swisher. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 1999. 126-35.
Ambition is defined as a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work. Within this play, ambition is portrayed as corrupting through the main concepts of mental state, supernatural behaviors and betrayal. Macbeth has great ambition and desired a lot of things, but the intensity led him to his own misery.
Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine. New York: Washington Square, 1992. Print. The New Folger Library Shakespeare.
...rn day society, illusive ambitions can be incredibly detrimental, just as they are demonstrated to be in Macbeth. Ambitions, if they are untamed, can be an impediment to free will; they can overpower your good conscience, possibly leading you into causing death and destruction. They can also corrupt one’s mental health, while practically morphing that person’s perception of reality into something demonstrably wrong and twisted. Finally, they can boost ones ego to a point where that person is engulfed and imprisoned in the vehemence of their own denial, which can ultimately bear fatal consequences. If one’s hopes and desires are innately destructive, then it logically follows that that one’s ambition is also innately destructive; be wary of one with an immense ambition.
Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” explores a fundamental struggle of the human conscience. The reader is transported into the journey of a man who recognizes and acknowledges evil but still succumbs to its destructive powers. The character of Macbeth is shrouded in ambiguity that scholars have claimed as both being a tyrant and tragic hero. Macbeth’s inner turmoil and anxieties that burden him throughout the entire play evoke sympathy and pity in the reader. Though he has the characteristics of an irredeemable tyrant, Macbeth realizes his mistakes and knows there is no redemption for his sins. And that is indeed tragic.
Shakespeare, William. “Macbeth.” The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Ed. David Bevington. New York: Longman, 1997