Major Themes In Macbeth

Throughout they play MacBeth, there are many different themes that are caused by the controversial acts in the play. These themes can all translate into lessons and create, in a sense, a life lesson. A set of values that the characters in the play don't use or think about. This causes the play to unfold the way it did. All of the themes tie together to create a central point.

The first theme in this play is how ambition can destroy others along with yourself. In the play MacBeth he and his wife let their ambition get the best of them from the very beginning. He hears form the witches that he will become these kings and Thanes of places. He didn't believe it until one came true. This made his level of ambition become greater than his own self-worth, among his worth for others. Lady MacBeth says to Macbeth: "To catch the nearest way: thou wouldst be great, /Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it"(1.5.17-19). She's

Guilt throughout the play shows that guilt, along with ambition, can destroy you. Without this internal guilt neither Lady MacBeth, nor MacBeth would've died the way they did. Macbeth would've stayed a tyrant and kept killing everyone single person in his way of the thrown. Lady MacBeth wouldn't have ended her life like she did in the play. A way this is symbolized is how they both continuously try to wash their hands to rid them of this sin. Lady MacBeth sleep walks and tries to rinse the blood form her hands. In MacBeth, Macbeth shows his guilt right after killing Duncan by saying: "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood/ Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/ The multitudinous seas incarnadine, / Making the green one red"(2.2.57-60). This is him stating that not even all the water from the oceans could wash his hands from this horrendous sin. The killing Duncan causes a ripple effect of guilt that creates that atmosphere that things aren't as they