Ambition is normally restrained by mortality, rabid actions or ideas introduced by someone’s ambition are shot down by someone’s moral compass. This emotion is expressed by Macbeth after his first encounter with the witches causing him to realize he could become king if he killed Duncan, however, the idea is almost silenced by his internal monolog, pleading in his brain that “Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / And falls on the other” (1.7). Macbeth in this quote is arguing with his ambition which is pleading for him to not kill Duncan, bringing up how overexpression of Ambition only causes one to fall on himself and fail miserably. This shows how his moral compass is trying to use logical reasoning to leash his ambition and prevent Macbeth from committing a heinous …show more content…
He calls someone who dares to go beyond moral standards a monster, someone who is no longer a man. This only further expresses how people’s ambition and actions to fulfill said ambition are restrained by a moral compass, preventing any morally reprehensible actions from occurring. As after anyone crosses a certain barrier, they are labeled a “monster” by society and shunned due to going beyond conventional allowed standards. Labels such as these give extra weight to one’s moral compass when deciding actions or suppressing one’s ambition. Macbeth after going through with the deed due to external factors which overwhelmed his moral compass has to deal with the issues and ends up hallucinating Banquo’s ghost, someone else he murdered, which he sees appears in front of him during a banquet, “Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold / Thou hast no speculation in those eyes” (3.4) Even after Macbeth was consumed by his ambition his conscience was still able to suppress it partially by torturing his