Comparison Of Macbeth And Brim's Psychology Of Ambition '

Unlike most desires, prestige is one that is shared by all of humanity. For people, prestige is incredibly important in terms of individual and social success. People act on their desire in order to gain prestige. Through stories reflecting the human condition and examples in the modern age, we can see how far people will go for personal success. In life, people are motivated by greed, power, and jealousy to acquire prestige through any means necessary. A common drive that often leads people to do anything for prestige is greed. Greed affects people universally In Psychology of Ambition, Brim writes that people will always aim for more, regardless of possessions. Citing a study measuring how much more people desire using money as a

This study illustrates how universal the idea that people always desire more. In Macbeth, Macbeth kills Duncan in order to be king not out of anger or revenge but when his greed to be king overtakes his self-control. Macbeth’s actions over his greed and our study concluding that people always want more displays how far humans will go to gain more. In The Governor's Wife, we see a near parallel to Macbeth’s wife’s situation when her greed led her and her husband to sell official government seats. Both Shakespeare’s tale and this situation in recent history show how greed has been around for hundreds of years. This article and Macbeth’s similarities heavily support our theory that greed is a driving force in people’s behavior. This greed for more also seems to be unending not only through Macbeth’s constant search for more power but in the article, Thought of acquiring power. The article

Jealousy is a common emotion that everyone experiences and draws out some of the worst characteristics of humanity. In a study presented by the article How Jealousy Works, it presents the idea of power jealousy, which refers to the idea of being unhappy by a missed work or power related promotion. The article also writes about a study on adolescent jealousy which stated, “jealous adolescents studied were more inclined to become either physically or passively aggressive”. This supports the idea that jealousy could very well be prime fuel for aggressive acts. This is also presented in Shakespeare’s Macbeth when Macbeth kills Duncan believing he should be king. This is a clear example of power jealousy and this play and study reflect how people would have acted in that time versus present and shows how these human emotions have not changed over the years. In addition to this, Much Ado About Nothing presents a similar villain, Don John whose motivation for ruining marriages seems to be jealousy of other members of the group and their influence and power. In an article on school shooter’s motivation titled, Envy and Murder the author explains that the students were not driven by revenge but, “ shooters are more likely driven by envy than by revenge. This seems most true among those shooters” (Langman 7). The