How Is Greed Shown In Macbeth

Have you ever wondered about the importance of that random Shakespeare play you read back in high school? There are many ways that one of Shakespeare's more popular plays connects to our modern world. This play is none other than Macbeth, this timeless tale shows how greed and ambition are great motivators for people's actions, something that is still very prevalent today. Macbeth, the play written by Shakespeare in the 1600’s, has underlying themes of ambition and greed, this can be further developed by saying that greed and ambition are often great motivators. One quote from Macbeth states, “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other—” (Shakespeare Act 1, scene

Both Macbeth's words and actions show how greed, or in this case ambition, motivated him to make the choices that he did. In a similar fashion, even if not directly stated, actions led by greed can be louder than words. This is shown in Macbeth when Lady Macbeth says, “Thou shalt be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it” (Shakespeare Act 1, Scene 5, 15-17). Although this quote does not directly word Macbeth's greed and ambition it shows how Lady Macbeth thinks that Macbeth lacks ambition and this leads her to her later actions in the play by pushing Macbeth to kill the king because of her own greedy intentions. Similarly, greed can lead people to make choices or do things they wouldn’t normally do. Like the quote before, this lady Macbeth is the speaker, these two quotes show the progression of her character over a short time, but the change in thinking is still noticeable. The two quotes perfectly capture how her greed and ambition are growing as the story progresses and how it is influencing more than