Macbeth's Ambition Research Paper

Ambition is an individual's sense of motivation and passion that influences them towards carrying out certain actions. Their greed, however, may twist their aspirations into a dark and wicked persona of their former desires, leading them to pursue a devious means of fulfilling their objectives. This theme is present in the play Macbeth, in which the easily influenced character of Macbeth falls victim to prophecies and his wife’s cunning ideals, eventually trodding on a path to perceived power that would only spell out his downfall. In the tragedy, Macbeth, playwright William Shakespeare explores the idea that a greedy individual will go to extent of altering their own personality for the better pursuit of their ambitions, this ambition becoming

Portrayed through the character of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare expresses the notion that applying your aspirations manipulatively will only result in negativity for for your own self,”Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,”(III.II.50) This statement made by Macbeth to his lady depicts him saying that she needs not to be aware of what in going on, what he himself is plotting. This newfound independence growing within Macbeth is the result of Lady Macbeth’s own ambitions being reflected onto her husband, carrying him off onto his own journey of pursuit, her presence in this desire no longer being required. The negative application of an individual’s own ideals on another person in an attempt to help fulfill one’s own intentions will lead to a control shift from the abuser to the target of this manipulation. The aspirations originally belonging to an individual no longer remain their own, this further loss of self and alienation being an impact of the actions born from their own previous desire. This sudden spark of cause within the opposite person will only grow stronger and stronger as it once had in the heart of its creator, the emptiness of the spot it left in the past individual's mind slowly widening into a vast crevice from who’s darkness the person will

Nearing her eventual death, Lady Macbeth hallucinates on night in her state of sleepwalking, expressing her previously confined emotions about the repercussions of her dark past actions,”Out, damned spot! out, I say!../Yet who/would have thought the old man to have had so much/blood in him!”(V.I.32-37) The now wary Lady Macbeth is attempting to wash dreamed spots of blood from her hands, pondering as to how she was unaware that her murderous plot of ending King Duncan’s would bring her to such a stage in life, the bloodshed setting off such a tragic chain of following events. The blood itself is symbolic of guilt, an elusive figure of her own surprisal at this point her once ruthless ambition has brought her. Once an individual’s aspirations are no longer even within their grasp or control, their alienated state will cause them to grow restless because of the underlying guilt they hold captive within their hearts. This dark and concealed emotion will eventually has no other choice than to put itself in front of the world, as the severe lack of one’s motivation leaves no strength to suppress this internal conflict any further. There are endless possibilities as to what act this remorseful feeling may bring an individual to consider and act on, the force so