Macbeth's hamartia, ambition, is his fatal flaw in Shakespeare’s 1606 play. His conscience and mental fortitude become undone, with powerful female characters urging his downfall. During the renaissance period, in England, it was a time of political instability. Threats like the gunpowder plot, planned on the usurpation of the ruler at the time, King James. Shakespeare sends a warning through the dramatization of Macbeth's conscience to not disturb the 'great chain of being'. Maternal power affecting conscience is a theme explored through both the witches and lady Macbeth. Whilst Macbeths fatal flaw of ambition leads to his downfall.
The witches play on Macbeths vulnerable conscience through a cryptic prophecy, sparking his ambition. From the opening
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Evidently, when he comes to a realisation of his actions he claims,' life is but a walking shadow', the metaphor of a 'walking shadow', signifies his anagnorisis and mental instability. It further covers an idea of nihilism, highlighting the despair within him. This mental fragmentation is further showed in,' Will all Neptune's oceans clean thy sins', his allusion to 'Neptune' and space highlights a feeling of despair. This plays on the idea of the irremovable and his shattered conscience at the current time. Further, his guilt and effects of ambition explored in,' The multitudinous seas in carnidine', the imagery and hyperbole show his reflection that all the blood and destruction caused by himself would turn all 'Neptune’s seas', red. This further emphasises the scale of his fragmented conscience, ultimately caused by his fatal flaw. In the final scene, Macduff enters with a prop of Macbeth's singular bloody head. It is seen as a sign of his conscience being held by another character or by himself. Only his 'Vaulting ambition' which was large thus ultimately leading to this