ipl-logo

Power And Motivation In Shakespeare's Macbeth

349 Words2 Pages
Power and motivation can push people to do amazing things, good or bad. In Macbeth’s case, his power gave him potential to do good; Instead, his greed for recognition led him to commit horrifying acts of murder. Macbeth was just a normal person of royalty until the idea of becoming king and gaining power lead him to the point of no return. Literally. Macbeth had many things to motivate him to do his killing from the prophecies, to his wife; However, the realization of becoming king as a whole pushed him to his worst. His motivation started when Lady Macbeth reminds him how becoming king will be good for the both of them. She manipulates Macbeth when she tells him, “Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it” (1.5.6-7).
Show More
Related
651 Words | 3 Pages

The play entitled Macbeth by William Shakespeare portrays Macbeth, a loyal and brave thane to the king. When a prophecy reveals he will become king, Macbeth is overcome with ambition and greed. Convinced of this prophecy and the encouragement from his wife, he is able to kill the king and take the throne. Although Macbeth was able to obtain the throne, he was was overwhelmed by power and guilt leading to internal conflict, which suggests that success is not desirable through cheating and corruption and ultimately cost more than its actually worth, Macbeth`s reckless pursuit of killing and becoming the king is representative of the power he has and what he is able to do with the power he's gained; therefore. His relentless ambition for king reveals the guilt behind power.

Read More
864 Words | 4 Pages

The natural drive and ambition in an individual can be a great strength. If it goes unchecked, however, it can cause people to do things they would never have originally done leading to bad consequences. In Wiliam Shakespeare's play, The Tragedy of Macbeth, there was a successful kingdom in Scotland; it had lucious land and mostly good people. King Duncan was a gracious leader. He loved reward and praising his loyal subjects.

Read More
496 Words | 2 Pages

At the beginning of the play Macbeth, the main character Macbeth learns that he will become King. When he realised he could be the leader, the power he desperately craves motivates him to alter his character. “Tis unnatural, Even like the deed that's done.” (2.4.6-14)

Read More
521 Words | 3 Pages

The motif that motivation was a powerful effect on someone’s decisions on the course of actions they must take. Shakespeare’s play Macbeth demonstrates this idea through the protagonist, Macbeth and his interactions with other characters in order to achieve his goals. When Macbeth was told by the witches that he would be king, Macbeth so an image in his head that was a “horrid image (that) unfix(es) (his) hair” (act 1. scene.iii). The image he saw would be the death of the current king.

Read More
1094 Words | 5 Pages

Motivation to attain goals plays an important role in an individual’s life. It is instinctive to put effort for the accomplishment of one’s target. If an individual put genuine effort and enough motivation to fulfill one's objectives, it will result in success. Nonetheless, the urge to fulfill one's goal keeps individual to focus on its mission until it has been achieved. In William Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, the character of Macbeth uses motivation in order to achieve his ambition of becoming the King of Scotland.

Read More
452 Words | 2 Pages

Macbeth was working toward being the king of Scotland in the beginning after meeting the three wired sisters. And being told that he was king to be, so it inspired him to do anything that he had to to become king. It did not matter the circumstances he would do it. Even if that meant killing his best friend. He down was cause by him killing Macduff’s family.

Read More
1015 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1323 Words | 6 Pages

As humans, the desire to want control or influence is natural. However, some people may go to greater extremes than others to obtain this power. For instance, in the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Macbeth was characterized as a good man, well renowned for winning a battle. His wife, on the contrary, Lady Macbeth, has a strong urge to obtain power and she is willing to do anything to acquire it. She implemented the thought of destroying everyone who stood in the way along the path to reach royalty in Macbeth’s mind by making him feel like he as though he is less of a man if he decided not to.

Read More
935 Words | 4 Pages

Is it not weird how ambition for power corrupts one corrupt and leads them to their destiny? Ambition for power is lust which tempts one to be corruptive to acquire and protect it. However, in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, it is evident that ambition for power ultimately leads to corruption when Macbeth’s ambition for power causes the assassination of King Duncan, when Macbeth’s ambition for power compels him to execute those who obstruct his inheritance to the Scottish Throne, and finally, when Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to assassinate the people who impede his Kingship of Scotland out of lust for power. Macbeth’s ambition for power is the root cause to King Duncan’s assassination.

Read More
1777 Words | 8 Pages

For Macbeth, he is motive by the fulfill of the prophecies, which facilitate the growth of ambition. “He will be fooled into thinking he is greater than fate, he will mock death, and he will think he is above wisdom, grace, and fear.” (Crowther.3.5.2). As Hecate, the head of the witches suggests, the prophecies are made to fool Macbeth and lead him into the completely wicked way of killing people in order to satisfy his intrigued ambition and paranoid thoughts. In other words, the deterioration of Macbeth’s character and all the immoral practice done by Macbeth and her wife predominantly provoked by the prophecies, which in fact, only contains one piece of real information, possession of The Thane of Cawdor by Macbeth.

Read More
729 Words | 3 Pages

It is human nature to want power, to be at the top of the pyramid, to be king/queen, but that comes at a price as shown in Macbeth. In the play, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth will do anything to have absolute power and nothing stands in their way. From killing to going completely mad, they will become the next king and queen at all costs. The ambition and the want for power is so high that they kill many, they do whatever they can to be one step closer, and they go completely insane, all because they want that absolute power.

Read More
760 Words | 4 Pages

Power is always coveted in any society and the world of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is no different. In the play, Macbeth, a noble lord, shows his hunger for power with thoughts to remove an heir to the throne from power. Macbeth’s impatience to be king leads him to stain his honor by using murder. Macbeth travels further down the path of evil by arranging the assassination of a friend.

Read More
954 Words | 4 Pages

What drives apparently good men to become ruthless, ambitious, jealous and greedy? We see an example of this in the play “Macbeth” performed at Pop Up Globe, directed by Tom Mallaburn, was written originally by the well-known author, William Shakespeare. Macbeth is based upon a big tragedy, where the two main characters, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, inevitably were forced to do evil things due to their ambition; taste the sweetness of victory and then downfall again. Although the play was written by an English author, Shakespeare smartly sets his story based upon the idea of ambition, a concept that relates to all of us, no matter where we are from. We have to admit that in our minds, the concept of power and ambition is linked to men.

Read More
426 Words | 2 Pages

Macbeth’s ambitions influence him to attain his desire for power. This ambition drives him to become reckless for the sake of reaching his goals. This recklessness leads to the murder of Duncan- the first in a line of murders Macbeth commits to reach his power. These murders represent Macbeth’s gradual loss of morality.

Read More
569 Words | 3 Pages

Blind Ambition and Greed The play “Macbeth”, by William Shakespeare illustrates many themes through the characters from the beginning to the end of the story. But the main central theme introduced is Ambition and Greed. As the play goes on we read how Macbeth permits his Ambition and Greed to dictate the outcomes and tragedy’s that occur to himself and others.

Read More

More about Power And Motivation In Shakespeare's Macbeth

Related Topics

Open Document