Can Ambition Ever Turn Deadly Analysis

Ambition is an admirable trait that enabled famous writers and scholars to attain an unbelievable greatness. However, highly ambitious people often end up failing because they are unable to fill up an insatiable hole of greed that leads them to constant frustration and dissatisfaction. Just as an excessive ambition can start with malice, it can end in anguish and despair. In the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, the main protagonist, Macbeth, and his wife, Lady Macbeth, demonstrate an ambition that has an exacerbating impact on them that slowly leads to the self-destruction and obliteration of people around. After Lady Macbeth clouded Macbeth’s mind, Macbeth killed a benevolent king Duncan. But even with crown and power, Macbeth spend his life in fear and anxiety, until the weight of the ambition was relieved by his downfall. Through Macbeth’s character, Shakespeare shows that the extreme ambition that was emerged out of ferocious passion could devour an individual’s moral goodness, which in turn would carve the path directly to the total misery. Possessing such ambition makes the individual live in a self-imposed fretfulness and expose the closest people under consequential threats.

However, the witches were not the only people to plant ideas into Macbeth’s head. Lady Macbeth also played a major role in convincing Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Although Lady Macbeth does not fully control Macbeth, she guides him down the path towards his down fall. Lady Macbeth uses power, which was not commonly seen in women in Shakespeare’s time, to strongly influence Macbeth’s actions. She even attacks his honour, saying that if Macbeth does kill the King, then he is not a man, and that if he does kill the King, he will be much more than a man.

As the play continues, in the acts three and four the gender roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth make a big switch when Macbeth is planning on the killing of Banquo. Macbeth beings to act more masculine before this murder and in a sense leaves his lady out of what is going on this time, instead of her taking charge like before, Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night, Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day; And with thy bloody and invisible hand Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond Which keeps me pale! Light thickens; and the crow Makes wing to the rooky wood: Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; While night's black agents to their preys do rouse Thou marvell'st at my words: but hold thee still; Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill. So, prithee, go with me. (3.2, ).” As of now, Macbeth is portraying the actions of what society believes a man should act like. He is now telling her that he has a plan to kill Banquo but he is not going to tell her the details, he wants her not to worry because he believes he has everything under control. Macbeth is trying to be what it takes to be a man but when a person is power hungry they always seem to fail.

At the start of the play, Lady Macbeth was “in control” of Macbeth. He listened to her and done everything Lady Macbeth told him to do to prove of himself to her. Although Macbeth was then the King of Scotland, he was not always the king. The way he actually became king was because of Lady Macbeth. She came up with an evil plan to murder the original king was named Duncan. Macbeth was against this plan at first: “We will not proceed no further in this business” (1.7.31). Then, after Lady Macbeth used her controlling ways, he changed his mind. Lady Macbeth questioned Macbeth’s manhood (1.7.35-44). Macbeth felt as

On page 59, line 68, Lady Macbeth scolds Macbeth of being "infirm of purpose". Not only is this a firm way of speaking to her husband, especially considering the common patriarchy in most families, but it also shows that Lady Macbeth feels like she is on the same level of Macbeth power-wise. Lady Macbeth isn't afraid of asserting her power. Because Lady Macbeth is Macbeth's partner versus just a spouse-like figure,

Lady Macbeth provides a scheme for Macbeth to assassinate the King. She is manipulative and persuasive in corrupting Macbeth s judgement. “What beast was’t then that you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man; And to be more than what you were, you would be so much more the man.” (Act I. Sc.VII) In this quote, Lady Macbeth is agitating Macbeth by saying he is not a man if he does not do what he says he is going to do, which is to murder the king of course.

After Macbeth was told the prophecies about him becoming king he had to let his wife know. So after knowing what the future supposedly held for Macbeth, Lady Macbeth started to get power hungry way before Macbeth did. Lady Macbeth wanted the power so badly that she deceived her own husband into doing an evil bidding so they could get the throne and power that they soon desired so much. In (Act 1 scene 5) Lady Macbeth had summoned an evil spirit to take away her decency and fill it with evilness and sinfulness so she could block out the guilt that would come her way. She knew that Macbeth was too full of human affection so she said she would spill her evilness into his ear just so she can get him to do the evil deed of killing King Duncan. Lady Macbeth compares to a manipulative kind of bully who can easily trick you with her influences and controlling manner. If Lady Macbeth was never so power hungry for power after what the witches told her and Macbeth than Macbeth would probably never have done what he had to King Duncan and Macbeth wouldn’t have changed and turned into a dominate, cowardly, manipulative bully. After Lady Macbeth spilled her malicious and devious ways into Macbeth, he turned and took advantage of King Duncan, because in act 1 scene 4 Macbeth said to King Duncan “ The service and the loyalty i owe in doing it pays itself”(Shakespeare 223). Basically Macbeth was saying he has

An ambition for power can seem to be true perfection, but one should be careful what they wish for, because that power might be exactly what causes their downfall. In the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare ambition plays a great role and is also a main theme. Ambition is often the motivating force in one's life. It is supposed to be the motivating factor that drives one towards success. The main character, Macbeth has ambition even though it leads him to his downfall. In contrast, Lady Macbeth pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the outcome of her actions. She becomes guilty which leads to her death since she becomes mentally ill and commits suicide, leaving Macbeth without any

The conformity to gender roles that Macbeth and Lady follow leads to the destruction of their relationship. At the beginning of the play, Lady Macbeth is more masculine than Macbeth and holds the power in their relationship. Lady Macbeth is aware that she is the assertive one in their relationship and uses that to manipulate Macbeth. In act 1, scene 7, Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s masculinity saying, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And, to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man.”(54-56) in saying this, she is using Macbeth’s fragile masculinity against him because she knows Macbeth will prove his masculinity by killing Duncan. After they succeed and get away with the murder, Macbeth becomes more assertive and decisive. Macbeth begins to hide things from Lady Macbeth, like his plan to kill Banquo, this causes a strain on their relationship. In act 3, scene 2, lines 50 and 51, Macbeth says to Lady Macbeth, “Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck, / Till thou applaud the deed.” about his plan to kill Banquo because he doesn’t want her involved. This furthers the strain in their relationship because Macbeth thinks he, a man, should handle these kinds of things where Lady Macbeth, a woman, should not concern herself with such problems. Furthermore, by excluding Lady Macbeth he has pushed a wedge between them by keeping secrets from her, losing her trust and leading to the downfall of their relationship. Closer to the end of the play, Macbeth assumes his role as a hypermasculine man and becomes violent, killing any possible threat to him. In becoming king, Macbeth becomes obsessed with having power because of the lack of control he had in his relationship with his wife. To Macbeth Macduff appeared as a threat,

Ambition is what motivates people to achieve a certain thing in their life. However, many fail if their ambition is too big and unreasonable. This is definitely the case for Macbeth in the William Shakespeare's play Macbeth. Macbeth's ambitious causes him to disregard his loyalty to Duncan. Moreover, Macbeths desires lead him to be immoral, going to extremes in order to achieve success. Ultimately, Macbeths deep aspirations for power demonstrates being over ambitious will end in disaster. Therefore, in the play Macbeth, Macbeths ambition leads him to corrupt his morality, resulting in his downfall

To begin Lady Macbeth was a strong character throughout the entire play and knew very well how to manipulate her husband into getting what she wanted. “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o ' th ' milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it.” (Act 1 Scene 5) In this quote Lady Macbeth is criticising Macbeth’s drive to cary out what needs to be done in order for him to become king. Lady Macbeth is telling Macbeth that he could be great but never will be if he doesn 't step up and kill Duncan. After Lady Macbeth continued to question her husband’s manhood Macbeth decided that he needed to murder the king

When Macbeth starts feeling guilty about murdering Duncan, Lady Macbeth makes sure that he doesn’t feel that way anymore: “When you durst do it, then you were a man;/ And to be more than what you were, you would/ Be so much more the man” (Shakespeare I. 49-51). Lady Macbeth threatens Macbeth’s manliness by saying he was manly, but now he isn’t because he feels guilty. Lady Macbeth then states that she would kill her own child if she promised someone to prove her point even more. By saying this, she makes Macbeth sound weak and unmanly which makes her feel more powerful. After that Macbeth quickly starts honoring Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare is trying show us that Lady Macbeth is starting to become man like, and that she isn’t acting very feminine because leadership roles were only given to man. Since she is dominating Macbeth, she is in the control of the “mission” which back then was very manly rather than

Macbeth needed Lady Macbeth to do this, for without her, he would have continued to see the horrible act as something he shouldn’t do. In this regard, Lady Macbeth does this very well, she makes Macbeth see things in a different light, tells him how he is erroneous in his thinking and gets him to think how she wants him to. The following quote shows these domineering and manipulating qualities of hers quite well: “Art thou afeard/To be the same in thine own act and valor/As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that…/And live a coward in thine own esteem,/Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would’/Like the poor cat I’ the adage?” (1.7.43-49) This passage of Lady Macbeth also sums up her thoughts quite nicely: “What beast was’t it then/… made you break this enterprise…/when you durst do it, then you were a man,/…to be more than what you were, you would/Be so much more the man.” (1.7.53-57) Both of these quotations display Lady Macbeth’s thoughts about Macbeth: he is weak, and he must be a man, while she is strong and would do the murder without a thought. These thoughts clearly show how ambitious she is, and how determined she wants to influence Macbeth’s actions.

She communicates to Macbeth that she wants to have more manly qualities “unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty” (1.5.31-33). Lady Macbeth wanted to become more manly so she could kill King Duncan herself, but if she was looked at as a gentlewoman she knew it would never happen. By communicating her thoughts to her husband Macbeth, she was instantly seen differently. The tender woman he had love for so long has changed into someone whose only goal is to inflict pain on others. This new side to Lady Macbeth was able to kill the king with no remorse.