At the beginning of the play, he is hailed as the brave warrior who fought with his friend Banquo and, due to his act of bravery, was given the title “thane of Cawdor!” (1.2.65-67). However, it does not take him long to show his most noticeable character trait, ambition, which leads him to murder King Duncan. His insatiable desire for power and a fierce determination to be king drives Macbeth to continue to deceptively plot against his friend and commit terrible acts of violence and betrayal. It causes him to spiral out of control quickly, and he goes from a reluctant murderer to a sinister and brutal killer.
However, his ambition also did play its role in the whole act. His ambition to be the King of Scotland was born when he became Thane of Cawdor and thereafter started dreaming of being the King of Scotland. “They met me in the day of success; and I have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further”. This statement echoed the intensity of Macbeth’s greed and ambition beyond the peak of a mountain.
Macbeth is a greedy person like us all but he unlike most of us is willing to cross anyline to get what he wants. Macbeth was willing to kill someone he considered a dear friend to gain more power as well as killing Duncan's servants to frame them. His greed out-weighed his loyalty for his king and friend showing how much he’s willing to do to accomplish his selfish goal. Macbeth is so greedy that he’d turn against his own best friend to keep his position as king.
But yet i’ll make assurance double sure, And take a bond of fate. Thou shalt not live; That I may tell pale-’hearted fear it lies, and sleep in spite of thunder.” (IV, i, 82-86). It was clear to see that Macbeth’s life throughout the play was a constant struggle for power. Since the beginning, when Duncan was first invited to Macbeth’s home, there was always ambition; and as the play went on the ambition only grew until it became his downfall.
(Shakespeare 1.3.52-55). Macbeth is influenced by his greed for power to use ruthless actions, in this case to kill Duncan to receive the crown he thinks he needs to earn that power. Overwhelmed by his greed, he is already thinking about the “murder” as he
At the beginning of William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ the protagonist Macbeth is described as ‘brave’, ‘noble’ and ‘honourable’, however Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeths desire for power consumes them. Macbeth’s ambition overrides his conscience and transformed his greatest strength into his greatest weakness. Macbeth’s inability to resist temptations that led him to be greedy for power, Macbeth’s easily manipulative nature which allowed his mind to be swayed, Macbeth having no self control and his excessive pride was what allowed him to renew his previously honourable and celebrated title into one of an evil ‘tyrant’. Macbeth is led by the prophecies of the witches after they foretell he will become the Thane of Cawdor. Not only the witches, but also his wife easily manipulate Macbeth as she attacks his manhood in order to provoke him to act on his desires.
Bad weather, supernatural events, and unnatural occurences often appear within the natural realm in Shakespeare's written tragedy. Such instances were brought upon by Macbeth's thirst for power and violent temperament; the king Macbeth onced hoped to be was overshadowed by the tyrant that came to surface. The contrast between the two is simply that Macbeth lacked an embodiment of justice, selflessness, and his love for Scotland was deminished by his own personal interests. Therefore, the moral, political, and social orders were ruined by the spree of preposterous murders commited by Macbeth to gain power. The thunder and lightning that accompny the witches during this time to symbolize the fall and corruption of man.
When Macbeth first learns of the prophecies to become future king his instinct is to kill the king and get him out of the way so he could gain all power. The song states "Gotta get me a future, get out of my way." , similarly this relates to Macbeth's quote " I am thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair.” (1.3.132-134), in this passage Macbeth is picturing how he will kill Duncan and when he will become king.
By writing Macbeth, Shakespeare was trying to prove a point about how misusing power leads to corruption. When Macbeth becomes Thane of Cawdor he realizes all the power he could have. For example, Macbeth says, “My murderous thought is still only imaginary but it shakes my entire manhood so deeply that my power to act is smothered by expectation, and nothing seems real to be except what I imagine. ”(Act 1 scene 3 lines 149-151). Although at first Macbeth wants to kill King Duncan but he is scared to.
Macbeth shows that he is willing to kill King Duncan because he is interested in the witches prophecy, after they tell him that he will become ‘Thane of Cawdor’ and then the King.
In the story “Macbeth”, Macbeth was considered a very well-respected warrior. He was known for being chivalrous as well as ambitious. Although ambition is typically a good thing, Macbeth turns it into the complete opposite. He lets his ambition get the best of him and it ruins Macbeth entirely. He was given the title Thane of Cawdor and, due to greed, he continued to push for more.
Hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!...that shalt be king hereafter (Act 1, Scene 3).” The play Macbeth starts off with the three witches telling Macbeth and Banquo that Macbeth will become the Thane of Cawdor and then he will become king. Soon after, Macbeth learns that King Duncan has named him as the Thane of Cawdor. With this, Macbeth begins to believe that the witches’ prophecies must be true and is determined to become king. He says, “Let not light see my black and deep desires (Act 1, Scene 4),” implying that he has the inner desire to now become king.
Macbeth was the Thane of Cawdor but he wanted to be king more than anything. The witches had told him that he would one day be king but he did not know how long that would take so when King Duncan had been invited to stay the night at his house he exclaimed that “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical,/ shakes so my single state of man/ that function is smother 'd in surmise,/ and nothing is but what is not”(1.3.52-55). He felt that if he were to kill King Duncan that he would have a better chance of becoming king. Though the witches had never told him that someone would need to get murdered for him to become king, his ambition tempted him to quicken this process the only way he felt he could. This was the beginning of the murderer that the witches had created with the fortune telling.
“If good, why do I yield to that suggestion[killing Duncan]/Whose horrid image doth unify my hair” (I, III, 144-145). This quote indicates that the force of ambition is so strong within Macbeth that even he himself cannot understand why it is making him think of killing Duncan. Likewise, Macbeth’s ambition to become king is further emphasized after Duncan names his son Malcolm as his successor. Here, Macbeth says that he will have to “oerleap,/For in my way it [Malcolm] it lies” (I, III, 55-57).
He showed the King of Norway who was boss and made the king surrender. King Duncan recognized just how courageous and loyal Macbeth was he decided to make Macbeth the Thane of Cawdor. When macbeth runs into the witches, they tell him he will eventually become King. He then is overjoyed to become king, but starts to think about killing King Duncan because he is not next in line for the throne. “If it is evil, why has it given me a pledge of future success by telling me the truth at the outset?”
