Macbeth Ambition Research Paper

Macbeth; Ambition to Culpable

Although ambition can be useful in getting situations taken care of, it can also have a negative impact on decision making if not under control. Ambition can persuade a person to put other people’s needs aside and become selfish by seeking to fulfill their own goals. Consequences of this can lead to a person becoming aware of the dishonorable results of their choices, especially if those choices were harmful. Unfortunately, we watch Macbeth take this misfortunate path multiple times throughout “Macbeth”. From malicious decisions to choices that were forced upon him, ambition is seen ruining the life of Macbeth and anyone who gets in the way of his “destiny”. Innocently enough, things start off with Macbeth earning

He is seen paranoid and anxious about the results of his deed and his wife “talks” to him about it. Macbeth is clearly aware of what he has done, this is clear when he says: “I’ll go no more:/I am afraid to think what I have done;/Look on ’t again I dare not.”(II.2 51-53) He is so shaken by what he has let himself do, for the crown of Duncan. He also brings up the pain that he knows he will suffer in return for murdering an unworthy man of death. “Still it cried, “Sleep no more!” to all the house./“Glamis hath murdered sleep, and therefore Cawdor/Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more.”(II.2 42-44)This foreshadows the consequences of Macbeth’s actions in relation to his ambition getting the best of

He plans to kill Banquo and his son Fleance so they couldn’t “get in the way”. Macbeth sends murderers to find and kill both of his targets but they only seem to kill Banquo. Soon after Macbeth gets a visit from Banquo’s ghost and makes a fool of himself at his own dinner. “Prithee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How say you?/Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too./If charnel houses and our graves must send/Those that we bury back, our monuments/Shall be the maws of kites.”(III.4 72-76) We can see that all of Macbeth’s bad deeds including this one has lead him to this breaking point. Throughout each of his decisions to harm others to benefit himself, he has added the baggage of his crimes and now has to deal with them. “What man dare, I dare./Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,/The armed rhinoceros, or th' Hyrcan tiger;/Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves/Shall never tremble. Or be alive again,/And dare me to the desert with thy sword./If trembling I inhabit then, protest me/The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!/Unreal mockery, hence!”(III.4 103-111) Macbeth gives another great example of how deeply he is struggling with what he has done. He is hallucinating due to his guilt for killing Banquo and intending to murder his son along with