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Ambition In Macbeth

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The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare tells a story of the Thane of Glamis, Macbeth. Macbeth is driven by ambition to become a highly recognized person in society. On his way to the top, he encounters some obstacles. Macbeth is forced to make decisions that would involve serious consequences. Many of these decisions resulted in the loss of life for someone who knew Macbeth. The other result was the effect of death on the other people. He has flaws that make him imperfect. A human being is characterized by the frailties and weaknesses associated with humans as imperfect beings. Macbeth is a thoroughly representative human being. One word that can be easily associated with Macbeth is ambition. It is necessary for one person to have ambition in order to succeed. Ambition is first planted in Macbeth's head by King Duncan appointing him Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth's valiant effort in the war and the news of the Thane of Cawdor assisting the enemy cause Duncan to sentence death upon the Thane of Cawdor. …show more content…

That statement would stick out in Macbeth's mind throughout the rest of the play. Macbeth's hopping back and forth between fully believing the prophecy and thinking about its distance from a real possibility. After hearing this from the witches, Macbeth begins to be driven by a negative type of ambition. Macbeth's very first words in the play are, "So foul and fair a day I have not seen" (shakespeare). These words, of course, remind us of the witches, and they link Macbeth with forces of evil before he ever meets the

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Ambition gets a bad reputation if harnessed incorrectly. Some effects from being too ambitious can be derived from Shakespeare's play “Macbeth.” Macbeth, the protagonist in the play, was dangerously ambitious due to the three witches prophesizing that he would be the king of Scotland. He went to great lengths to make this prophecy come true such as: murdering King Duncan and his friend, Banquo. Throughout the play, he became greedy, ruthless, and power-hungry.

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Act 1 starts off with the three witches telling macbeth and banquo that macbeth will become king and his children too. Macbeth tells them how will he become king but the witches just reply with all hail Macbeth all hail the thane of cawdor I think this leads off to his ambition so this is where lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth into killing the king be telling him that if you don´t kill the king you are a coward and that he is not a man. Macbeth does not want to kill king duncan because he thinks that king duncan is such a popular king and the people will not be happy and will be sad but he ends up killing King Duncan and starts to see illusions of the dagger.

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It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” (Macbeth.5.5.26-31) Due to Macbeth’s insatiable desire for power, not only did physical harm come to Macbeth and his family, but he fell into a depression. Lady Macbeth’s life became an allegory for a candle, while bright and warm; is snuffed out by Macbeth’s corrupt ambition. Fatal flaws are created from positive personality traits that are demonstrated in situations that endangers one’s happiness.

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Before the prophecy, Macbeth was defined as a brave and a good man. Despite Macbeth 's kind heart, he is weak

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Macbeth asks the witches to reveal possible threats, and becomes reassured when he hears the prophecy. He says, “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, 87-89) The second prophecy symbolizes Macbeth’s desire to maintain his position as king.

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Act 1 Scene 3, Macbeth hears from the three witches that he will be thane of Glamis, thane of Cawdor and the future king. “...to be king/ Stands not within the prospect of belief,”(1.3.74-75).This quotation shows that Macbeth does not aspire to become king. On my slide, I incline to conclude a picture of the witches, because they are the ones telling Macbeth the news and makes him wonder and ambitious. “Good sir, why do you start and seem to fear/ Things that do sound so fair? (to the WITCHES)

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The Tragedy of Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare’s most popular plays. This tragedy tells the tale of a noble Scotsman named Macbeth, who assassinated King Duncan of Scotland, then murdered two other men to cover his crime. This violent act, as well as Macbeth’s desire for power, leads to the destruction of his family and his well-being. Macbeth’s journey to self-destruction began when he and his comrade Banquo met the three witches on a “foul and fair day.”

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The tragedy of Macbeth comes to him because of a single event in his life, that is meeting the Witches on the heath if that had not happened Macbeth would have still been a loyal subject to his king Duncan who would have later been king Malcolm. Surely the meeting did happen and with such forces of the witches, they were able to unleash the powerful ambition of Macbeth also Lady Macbeth. Consequently, these determinants were the driving force of Macbeth's inner demons, that lead to the tragic events of the play and make the play 'Terrifying' in the sense. Nevertheless, the weird sisters were positively responsible for the tragedy that happened in the play, which all started on the heath, they meet for the first time. “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!”(1.3, 49-50) “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!”

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William Shakespeare is an english poet who is known as the greatest writer in England. He is also known as the “Bard of Avon”. When Shakespeare wrote “The tragedy of Macbeth” James I had been king for three years. One of the main themes in this story is that having excessive ambition will lead to dangerous events. Shakespeare wrote this story during the reign of two royals, James I and Elizabeth.

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“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it” (Lee1). This signifies that one should be true to themselves; however, this is not always the case, in Macbeth, who uses her ambition through the form of evil and pressure. Throughout the course of the play, the audience sees Macbeth righteous personality which redefines the norm of society but turns into manipulation and lying in order to achieve status for her husband. In this play, Macbeth wants her husband to have status and become a king therefore, the idea of ambition and its relation to guilt and conscience serves a negative impact to those who have faith and justice within themselves. Macbeth is

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What is ambition? Ambition is the determination to achieve one’s goals. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare the protagonist, Macbeth, possesses ambition, which led to his downfall. In the play Macbeth’s ambition is driven by prophecies from witches and his wife’s aspiration. Ambition caused Macbeth to commit multiple homicides and after those wrongdoings Macbeth is left with nothing.

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Macbeth realizes that some of what the witches foretold had come true.

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Macbeth, a tragedy written by Shakespeare around 1606, dramatises the consequences that unchecked political ambition can yield. To truly understand Macbeth, however, it is important to know the time period and political context in which it was written. The main theme, excessive ambition leads to great consequences, is interestingly relevant considering how, why, and when Shakespeare wrote the play. Shakespeare drastically altered certain historical events in his writing. Shakespeare likely made these alterations for a few reasons; to increase the excitement by adding drama, to create a more complex characterization of Macbeth to contribute heavily to the theme of the play, and politically to cater to the ruler, King James the First.

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Shakespeare’s use of characterisation helps underpin the theme of ambition. Throughout the play, we see Macbeth’s character and personality change. We see Macbeth at the start of the play as a worthy and honourable man, but he changes to a very

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2015 Words | 9 Pages

The theme ambition is introduced through the desire of Macbeth to become king in which he is conflicted over. Macbeth’s aside shows internal conflict on what to do, as half of his prophecy has come true and ponders whether the second half will be truthful saying “This supernatural soliciting Cannot be ill, cannot be good: if ill, Why hath it given me earnest of success Commencing in a truth?” [I.III]. Macbeth is conflicted on whether the prophecy is beneficial as he worries what may happen to Duncan, the current king of Scotland, if himself were to become king.

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