Examples Of Greed In Macbeth

To be overambitious is a mistake made too often. One can step beyond the boundaries they are given, violating the universe’s unwritten rules. The greed that stems from this is shown in the play, Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare. Set in 11th century Scotland, Macbeth follows the story of a courageous soldier named Macbeth and his wife, Lady Macbeth, who are blinded by their ambitions to gain as much power as possible. By wanting too much, they are subject to the consequences of their machiavellian ways. In Macbeth by William Shakespeare, through Macbeth’s initial guilty actions and his later apathetic self, he uses Macbeth’s violation of society’s rules to demonstrate that when ambition goes unchecked, destruction lays in its wake, contributing

For example, after the goodhearted King of Scotland, Duncan, relays to his court that his son will be the next in line and that good things will come to those who wait, Macbeth thinks to himself, “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs / Against the use of nature? Present fears” (1.3.147-150). Macbeth’s ambition leads him to think of other means to gain the power he so desires. He can already imagine the destruction it will cause, foreshadowing the chaos to come. However, even so, he is still motivated by his hunger to consider dark ways to get power. Furthermore, after he has just murdered Duncan and Macbeth is speaking to his wife about the murder, he sorrowfully states, “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” (2.2.78-81). The slow and steady road to destruction has just begun and it will keep going. His greed leads him to commit sins such as murdering the well-liked King. All in all, Macbeth’s ambitious actions drive him to destruction through his

An instance of this is after Macbeth sends assassins to kill his friend Banquo who is a threat to his power, he sees Banquo’s ghost at a party he is hosting to celebrate his coronation: “Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake / Thy gory locks at me” (3.41.61-62). Macbeth is so blinded by his desires, he is trying to convince himself all the immoral things he has done were never him in the first place. The destructive path he is walking on can fully be seen by the reader, with the driving force of his ambitions behind it not losing any speed. Another example of this is when he learns his partner in crime and wife Lady Macbeth has just committed suicide due to her own guilt, he says, “Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more. / It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing” (5.5.27-31). To him at this point, life does not mean anything anymore. The destination that he was led to was nothing but a dead end. All of his desire and hunger has brought him to this destructive ending and he feels as if nothing was worth it, not even sad about his wife’s death. To end with, Macbeth’s overambitious and unchecked actions have reached full-circle and finally brought him