Macbeth's Ambition Research Paper

Macbeth Essay

Ambition helps us get up in the morning, to strive for better and achieve our goals. Too much ambition however, can consume a person and make him do evil or extreme acts to achieve his goals. In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, Macbeth’s title as a great and honourable warrior is replaced with that of a tyrant whose name is feared by all. After Macbeth’s encounter with the three witches and some persuasion from his wife; Macbeth’s ambition consumes him with darkness making him do immoral acts to achieve and satisfy his ambition. At the beginning of the play Macbeth is a fearsome character who can easily tear through enemies. He is driven by ambition to achieve his goals. He earns the respect of many including the King, whom he admires

In an attempt to secure his ambition, Macbeth plans and orders the death of his best friend Banquo. And becomes plagued by his ghost. He believes the ghost he manifested is real,which indicates that he can no longer recognize the evil he is doing. His ambition finally takes full control over him, when he orders the death of Malcolm’s family; who are innocent. It is at this point he has lost the respect and love of his people when Malcolm says, “I think our country sinks beneath the yoke; it weeps, it bleeds; and each new day a gash is added to her wounds.” Macbeth realizes that all the power he has gained has been for nothing when he says, She would have died hereafter; there would have been a time for such a word, To-morrow and To-morrow- Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing,” after he hears of his wife 's passing. This shows that Macbeth realizes the uselessness of his power and his life. He becomes too over confident and realizes that the ones who have tricked him have been the witches when he says “And be the juggling fiend no more believed, that palter with us in a double sense.” Without ambition one goes through without a drive to accomplish anything. Shakespeare 's tragic hero, Macbeth falls prey to his overwhelming ambition. In an attempt to satisfy and secure his desires, he loses his humanity and evil overrides his conscience. We can apply Macbeth 's situation to our own lives to ensure that we do not fall in the same way that Macbeth does to our