Macbeth's Ambition Research Paper

For some humans, ambition can be such a strong feeling, that some deceive themselves in order to achieve their ambitions. This is perfectly demonstrated in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Throughout the play, many characters exhibit ambition, however, the character that particularly showed willingness to deceive himself was the main character, Macbeth. Firstly, Macbeth’s ambition makes him susceptible to manipulation, as he is willing to deceive himself, thus making him believe the witches' prophecies. Then, Macbeth’s self deception led him to trusting the witches despite knowing that they cannot be trusted, leading to a false sense of security. Finally, Convincing himself that his sense of security was not false, Macbeth ignores the invasion force

Towards the start of the play, Macbeth runs into a group of three witches. These witches provide Macbeth with a prophecy about his power in the future. To which the ambitious Macbeth responds, “Stay, you imperfect speakers. Tell me more” (Shakespeare 1.3.70-78). In this moment, so early in the play, Macbeth’s ambition is already seen taking precedence over that of logic. He hears a prophecy about power he will have in the future, and listens. Doing this in spite of the fact that the witches are evil and should not be trusted. Despite the witches being evil, their prophecies do begin to come true. Starting with Macbeth become the Thane of Glamis, then Thane of Cawdor, and finally, King. After the first two come true, Macbeth starts to question his beliefs of the witches this is show when Macbeth says

Macbeth is satisfied with the answer he is given. Trees do not simply move, this led him to feeling safe, interpreting the prophecy to mean that his kingship is safe. Him interpreting this as such further proves that Macbeth is placing his trust in the witches, witches who cannot be considered trustworthy. Macbeth has absolutely no clue as to how the witches are telling him the future. He only trusts the witches because he has tricked himself into believing that the witches do not have evil intentions. The ambition and self deception that Macbeth exudes will soon catch up with him,