Ambition In Macbeth
Rabaya Rahman
English 151
Midterm
Ambition in Macbeth An ambition is an eager or strong desire to achieve something, such as fame or power. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, ambition is presented throughout the play as a dangerous quality that influences the two main characters, Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth, to use violence in their pursuit for power. Macbeth is a brave and loyal Scottish general, who is not naturally likely to carry out malicious acts. However Macbeth is driven by evil thoughts when three witches prophesized that he will become thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland. To the contrary, Lady Macbeth is a woman of great determination who desires for power and position. By using her skills of persuasion to awaken her husband’s ambition, Lady Macbeth succeeds in convincing Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Therefore the prophecy and Lady Macbeth act as the main driving forces of ambition which eventually causes the deterioration of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth herself. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is portrayed as a reasonable and moral human being. His ambition entailed good intentions because he was fighting for his king and country, not for his own selfish motives. However that is soon to change after Macbeth meets three witches who prophecies predict that he will be crowned thane of Cawdor and then become King of Scotland. Macbeth does not doubt the motives and/or predictions of the three witches and instead he believes them. However he does not think too much of it until after the witches’ first prophecy comes true and he is indeed awarded the title of thane of Cawdor. He then goes back to them for a second time which of course would lead him to his downfall because their second prophecy predicts that he will become King of Scotland. The idea of him attaining greater power causes him to think about killing the king however Macbeth has strong doubts on whether or not he should really commit the murder. Macbeth understands that the
English 151
Midterm
Ambition in Macbeth An ambition is an eager or strong desire to achieve something, such as fame or power. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, ambition is presented throughout the play as a dangerous quality that influences the two main characters, Macbeth and his wife Lady Macbeth, to use violence in their pursuit for power. Macbeth is a brave and loyal Scottish general, who is not naturally likely to carry out malicious acts. However Macbeth is driven by evil thoughts when three witches prophesized that he will become thane of Cawdor and then King of Scotland. To the contrary, Lady Macbeth is a woman of great determination who desires for power and position. By using her skills of persuasion to awaken her husband’s ambition, Lady Macbeth succeeds in convincing Macbeth to kill King Duncan. Therefore the prophecy and Lady Macbeth act as the main driving forces of ambition which eventually causes the deterioration of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth herself. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is portrayed as a reasonable and moral human being. His ambition entailed good intentions because he was fighting for his king and country, not for his own selfish motives. However that is soon to change after Macbeth meets three witches who prophecies predict that he will be crowned thane of Cawdor and then become King of Scotland. Macbeth does not doubt the motives and/or predictions of the three witches and instead he believes them. However he does not think too much of it until after the witches’ first prophecy comes true and he is indeed awarded the title of thane of Cawdor. He then goes back to them for a second time which of course would lead him to his downfall because their second prophecy predicts that he will become King of Scotland. The idea of him attaining greater power causes him to think about killing the king however Macbeth has strong doubts on whether or not he should really commit the murder. Macbeth understands that the