William Shakespeare’s Macbeth is a tragedy in which the main characters are obsessed by the desire for power. Macbeth’s aspiration for power blinds him to the ethical implications of his dreadful acts. The more that Shakespeare’s Macbeth represses his murderous feelings, the more he is haunted by them. By analyzing his hallucinations it is possible to trace his deteriorating mental state and the trajectory of his ultimate fall. Throughout the play Macbeth is never satisfied with himself. He feels the need to keep committing crime in order to keep what he wants most: his kingship. The harder Macbeth tries to change his fate the more he tends to run into his fate. His ambition and struggle for power was Macbeth’s tragic flaw in the play. Macbeth’s rise to the throne was brought about by the same external forces that ensure his downfall.
Shakespeare draws an amazing psychological portrait of a man who became a villain by means of ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil. “Macbeth” is a play composed of the disintegration of a noble man’s world. The play begins by offering the audience Macbeth, a war hero, with a high regard from Duncan, the king of Scotland. By the end of the play Macbeth transforms into a universally despised man without a place in the social community. Shakespeare draws an amazing face of a man made to be a villain by ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil.
Perhaps the most fundamental theme of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is the inherent corruptibility of even a seemingly good man when ambition turns to greed, and Macbeth himself exemplifies this concept throughout the play. While at the outset he is seen to be loyal to his king, generally considered trustworthy, and displaying numerous other laudable qualities, Macbeth ultimately succumbs to the influence of those around him and becomes unequivocally evil, setting aside all his previously held morals and coming to be driven only by his lust for power. This transition is brought about by a wide variety of factors and plays an integral role in the development of the plot. In his tragedy Macbeth, William Shakespeare employs
Throughout reading the play, Macbeth changes a lot from being a man of loyalty and honesty, to a man of whom is power hungry and greedy. This shows how the more power you receive the more power you want; which in many cases, such as this one leads to destruction. Many of the choices that Macbeth made were influenced by the power that he had, and this power began to take over him. This then lead to greed and destruction of not only others, but himself as well.
Throughout the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth continuously decides bad choices and the consequences of these decisions catch up to Macbeth and result in his mental deterioration, however with Macbeth’s almost infant feel for ambition this makes him susceptible to manipulation, which then grows into an insatiable appetite for power. The acts of this with the manipulation from outsiders, causes his blind ambition, his false sense of security and then finally his guilt, which all contribute to his derangement.
It is impossible to achieve happiness through actions that are motivated by greed and blind ambition. This is one of the numerous themes explored in William Shakespeare’s famed play, Macbeth, yet it is arguably the most relevant to modern society, which is so obsessively focussed on attaining an idealized vision of prosperity. The theme is illustrated most effectively in the conversation between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth before the palace banquet, which shows that evil begets evil, guilt is a crippling burden, and acts of wrongdoing lead to a haunting fear of retribution. The story of Macbeth and his wife, who betray their country and their moral principles to elevate their status, serves as a cautionary tale to all those who believe that they can be content with success achieved at the expense of others.
At the end of an awful, long day one might wonder what went wrong – was the universe against them? Was it a mistake on their part? What have they lost as a result? Such a scenario can be exemplified in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. First, outside forces influence Macbeth into making decisions he would not ordinarily make. Second, Macbeth’s transition from a revered leader to a detested king can be symbolized by the absence of nobility loyalty, and peace. Third, Macbeth’s overwhelming pride and thirst for power leads him to commit a series of crimes. The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare highlights the role of a Tragic Hero signifying that not staying true to ones core values will ultimately lead to their downfall.
From the beginning of the play, Shakespeare characterizes Macbeth to be a figure of power by things such as the defeat of the unloyal thane, and the gain of his title. Though Macbeth appears to represent an idea of power, Macbeth is proven to be a false aid to this perceived symbol of power through the witches involvement, animal nature controlling human nature, man being susceptible to temptation, all climaxing in Macbeth being a powerless, ineffective king. By examining Shakespeare’s imagery of illness, one can determine that Macbeth is a powerless figure that leads him to be an ineffective king.
Napoleon Bonaparte once said, “Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.” The main character of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Macbeth, is filled with ambition. Macbeth is a Shakespearean play in which Macbeth is given a prophecy by three witches which tells that he will eventually become king of Scotland. Macbeth, filled with ambition to fulfill these predictions, let’s nothing get in his way. The principles within Macbeth direct him and his ambition to perform very bad acts. Between Macbeth and his wife, the theme of ambition without morales leads to absolute destruction is abundantly present, especially as the play progresses.
Although in the beginning , Shakespeare “Macbeth” seems to be normal story about a Scottish kingdom the book challenges the reader to read further into the destruction of ones power, relationships and sanity. By examining Shakespeare use of illness one can determine that power corrupts.