Macbeth Essay

W. Clement Stone once said, "Desire is the starting point of all achievement." But as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth would soon know, great achievement is either earned by great work or clever deception. In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, characters such as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have common traits like a deep-rooted strive for ambition. Still, their faults and consequences lead to them having inverse character paths.

Macbeth at the beginning was a man of pure and simple ambition. He knew his place and did his role, only with a speck of jealousy and hope of being king of Scotland. But as the illustrious tragedy progresses, we see something may be amiss. In Act 3, we see how Macbeth reacts to the witch's prophecies of him becoming king. “This supernatural

I am Thane of Cawdor. If good, why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature? Present fears are less than horrible imaginings. My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered in surmise, And nothing is but what is not.” (1.3.233). To reflect on this quote, Macbeth seems nearly puzzled as to why he would take joy from the king dying and his taking place. Also, emotions of suspicion seemed to have crossed his mind plenty, questioning why these 3 witches would depict Macbeth in a stage of success. This does not stay the case, Macbeth's suspicion quickly morphed into curiosity, and I think we all know the quote about curiosity and the cat. As this progresses, Macbeth's ambitions become more clear, revealing a progression from the seemingly innocent Macbeth from before. In Act 1 Scene 7, Macbeth says “I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his

Lady Macbeth sets the stage for her character at a high bar, off the start we see Lady Macbeth call for supernatural abilities. Lady Macbeth. At this point in the play, Lady Macbeth seems commanding, decisive, and intense. These feelings are further perpetuated when in Scene 5 Lady Macbeth sets the tone for her ambition “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; Stop up the access and passage to remorse, That no compunctious visitings of nature shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between the effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances you wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night, And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark, To cry, “Hold, hold!” (1.5.379). This rich quote is passionate and fierce, but with an abnormal layer. Lady Macbeth seems to have elevated powers from supernatural abilities. This quote seems to portray Lady Macbeth as a fourth witch, calling for spirits that tend to “mortal thoughts” as if Lady Macbeth was above mere mortals, another insight is that Lady Macbeth's monologue is not a hope nor a wish, but a call or ask, furthering the idea that Lady Macbeth possesses more power. After the murder of Duncan