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Macbeth Power And Ambition Essay

600 Words3 Pages

Absolute power corrupts absolutely… unless, your absolute power is a “God-given” privilege, obviously. The ambition for power can drive a man to murder anyone (men, women, and children). When analyzing Macbeth, it becomes clear that the character of Macbeth demonstrates the potential destructiveness of power and ambition. His traits of being ambitious, a fighter, and (after Lady Macbeth persuades him to commit his sinful deeds) an overall evil figure (murdering all who stand in his path in being the ruler of Scotland) leads to destruction through power and ambition.
The ambition of Macbeth seems to make him even more villainous as he seeks to be the ruler of Scotland. His "black and deep desires" (Act 1, Scene 4, Lines 55-60) make it clear that he (Macbeth) is ambitious for immoral goals, in which he wants none to know of. And when Macbeth is honest with himself, he admits that there's no good reason to kill Duncan, because Duncan is perfectly good being the King of Scotland. It is because Macbeth only want the power of King for himself (Act 1, Scene 7, Lines 25-28). Even as his ambition for becoming the King of Scotland is unraveled, Macbeth seeks to know more about being in power, such as when he asks the Three Witches how he will be King of Cawdor (Scene 1, Act 3, Lines 72-80). Macbeth's character as a fighter (both on the …show more content…

This leads to Macbeth becoming a tyrant, a murderer, a liar, and eventually being killed (by Macduff) in an attempt to restore order and balance to Scotland. Whilst being one who doesn't give up, he does anything in order to fulfil his ambition for becoming the King of Scotland. Macbeth's traits demonstrate the potential destructiveness of power and ambition throughout the entire play as they become the force behind Macbeth, allowing him to perform the evil acts that he

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In play Macbeth, Shakespeare reveals that an individual’s great desire for power will lead him/her to perform consequential deeds that will scar his/her conscience and change the outcome of his/her life eternally. Macbeth is informed by three witches that he is going to become king and this initiates Macbeth’s thought of becoming powerful. Macbeth doesn’t act on his thoughts until he tells his wife, Lady Macbeth, that he could become king. Lady Macbeth is extremely power hungry and does all she can to convince Macbeth to be just as desirable as her. Together, they come up with a plan to murder King Duncan, so that Macbeth can become king like the witches foretold.

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Macbeth is also a power hungry man who would do just about anything to achieve his goal of becoming King. When Macbeth first hears the prophecies from the three witches he instantly became invested with the journey to become king. Similar to Lady Macbeth, nothing was going to come between him and his potential power, “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, shakes so my single state of man. That function is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is but what is not” (1.3.52-55). This quote exemplifies how Macbeth’s initial solution to becoming king was murder.

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