The Ambition of Macbeth

Powerful, tragic, romantic, and action packed: these are only a few words to describe the many plays written by the great William Shakespeare. Whether it was a tale of love or a king’s rise to power, Shakespeare’s plays were, and still are, always top-notch and so full of meaning. Every one of Shakespeare’s plays has certain themes to them that make them unique and well loved even today; no one can master powerful and controversial themes like Shakespeare did. Out of all of these plays, one play stands alone: Macbeth. The story is about a man who is very violent and wants to be king of Scotland. With the help of his power hungry wife, Lady Macbeth, he kills the good King Duncan and gets his wish, but is forced to contend to the vengeful son of Duncan, Malcolm, and Malcolm’s friend Macduff. Throughout the play, these characters are shown wielding ambition, and the choices they make based on their desires determines the fate of Scotland and of Macbeth himself. The characters Shakespeare creates to desire certain things change the play drastically and bring it to its overwhelming conclusion. Through Macbeth, Malcolm and Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare makes violence, revenge and power go hand in hand with ambition to show the audience how far a determined person will go to achieve their achievements.

Macbeth, the most ambitious person in the play, is a mean king who has people killed so he can stay in power; this ambition represents violence. In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a kind person who would never kill anyone for power. After his wife convinces him to kill Duncan, Macbeth’s life will never be the same ever again every murder he commits will haunt him until he is died and the unbearable guilt will destroy him and his wife. Macbeth slowly becomes accustomed to killing and does it more easily and without remorse. For example, after Macbeth becomes king, he begins to worry about the second part of the prophecy, when Banquo’s sons becomes kings. Knowing that he will not have any heirs, Macbeth dreads the idea of “the seeds of Banquo kings. Rather than so, come fate into the list, and champion me to the utterance…” (Shakespeare 3.1.70-73). Since he committed a bad thing to fulfill his desire become king, Macbeth does not want to lose everything he got to Banquo’s royal bloodline This shows how corrupt and villainous Macbeth has become; he will not let anything, not even friendship, get in the way of his desire to be the King of Scotland. And if the destruction of friendship is not a symbol of how strong Macbeth’s ambition truly is, then the manslaughter of an innocent man’s entire family is. When Macbeth sees the three apparitions, one of them tells him to beware Macduff. Surprisingly, after Macbeth learns that Macduff has fled to England, he responds by declaring that he will “give to the edge o’ the sword his wife, babes, and all unfortunate souls that trace him in his line.” (4.1.151-153). This shows how bad and evil Macbeth has become; he doesn’t even care about who he’s killing anymore. A wife and kids shows love and effection in a man’s life; the fact that Macbeth doesn’t even consider the moral consequences of destroying a loving family and killing children shows how filled with ambition he has become. Macbeth is so afraid of losing to Macduff that he believes that by killing his family, Macduff will be broken beyond repair and not be able to face Macbeth Unfortunately, he does not count on a certain someone to heighten Macduff’s hopes to slaying Macbeth by using his sorrow to his advantage.

He is also one of the most famous people of his time because he really really intrigues people in his old style writing, people used to come to South London and pack all of the theatres just to catch a glimpse of his amazing and awseome work