Negative Effects Of Macbeth

Have you ever done something you regret? Do you know why you did it? For the most part, people have regretted at least one thing in their life if not hundreds of decisions they have made. And for the most part, these people did these actions in order to get ahead in life. The invisible and mysterious force behind this is called ambition and is the thing that drives people to become successful and achieve their goals. However, there is a darkside to ambition causing the downfall of many great leaders, CEOs, and even just regular “Average Joe” people. A great example of the negative effect of ambition on a person is in the tragedy, “Macbeth”, written by William Shakespeare. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a brave and loyal Thane to King

This is evident after the murder of Duncan with Macbeth yelling at the top of his lungs, “Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. Or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable as this which now I draw. Thou marshall 'st me the way that I was going and such an instrument I was to use” (Act 2.1, 33-43). From this illusion, one can see Macbeth is feeling very confused and isn’t sure whether he should kill Duncan or let him continue to be a good king. However, the dagger is telling him otherwise, telling him that he should follow where it leads, do what it does, and if he does then the dagger will end up with Duncan’s blood all over it. What the audience can get from this is that the dagger is representing Macbeth’s evil intentions/desires, as well as his ambition to take whatever he wants. Furthermore, after the death of King Duncan, Macbeth states that, “there’s daggers in men’s smiles” (Act 2.3, 164). This is when Macbeth’s ambition took over and he was able to kill Duncan in order to achieve his goals at whatever price. It reveals that many people “mask” their true identity or emotion behind a fake smile, but are actually someone completely different, which relates back to the “Fair is Foul” and “Foul is Fair” and appearance versus reality. In this case, Macbeth is first introduced as as a noble man, but he smiled through his dagger and became a tragic hero. In conclusion, the arrival of a dagger or blood in the plot, usually meant Macbeth’s ambition was growing and growing and his hunger for more hadn’t stopped as well as Macbeth’s descent from a noble and brave soldier to a tragic