Macbeth: Ambition And Influence

Macbeth theme analysis essay
Two themes that are exemplified in Shakespeare's Macbeth are ambition and influence. Great amounts of ambition can lead to someone to be easily influenced.

Macbeth's ambition leads him to be easily influenced in multiple scenarios. This is highlighted in act 1.7 where Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth “Then, / That made you break this enterprise to me? / When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more than man. Nor time nor place / Did then adhere, and yet you would make both. / They have made themselves, and that their fitness / now (1.7.54-61). This is Lady Macbeth telling Macbeth that he’ll be more of a man if he makes this sacrifice, killing Duncan, to

In act 4.1 Macbeth meets the three apparitions. The apparitions tell him different prophecies, two of them contradicting each other. The first apparition tells Macbeth, “Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff! / Beware the Thane of Fife! Dismiss me. Enough (4.1.81-83). The second apparition tells him “Be bloody, bold and resolute. Laugh to scorn / The power of man, for none of woman born / Shall harm Macbeth (4.1.90-93). The third apparition tells him “Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care / Who chafes. Who frets or where conspirators are. / Macbeth shall never vanquished be until / Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill / Shall come against him (4.1.103-107). The first apparition tells him to beware Macduff but the second apparition tells him that no one born of a woman will be able to hurt him. These are contradictions. This allows Macbeth to make a choice on what he chooses to believe and act on. He believes the prophecy that is most in favor of what he hopes to accomplish, which is being king. He allows himself to be easily influenced by the second and only takes what he wants out of the third prophecy and doesn’t take the time to consider the possibilities of the first prophecy due to his ambition of being

Here in this scene is Lady Macbeth's way of asking the spirits to give her the characteristics that wouldn’t be accepted in a woman, but a man. She wants these characteristics so she can help Macbeth achieve his goal of being king. Lady Macbeth wants the characteristics that are absent within Macbeth because those are characteristics that she deems necessary for Macbeth’s goal to be accomplished. Macbeth sees Lady Macbeth acting this way as a stab at his masculinity. With this being a soliloquy Macbeth is not aware of Lady Macbeth actually saying the lines in act 1.5 proving that she actually does eventually inhabit these characteristics. Macbeth seeing this as a stab at his masculinity makes him even more eager to become