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The Delicate Balance Of Power In Shakespeare's Macbeth

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It is said that with great power comes great responsibility, because power has the tendency to be abused and affect people negatively if not acquired and used in moderation. In Macbeth, Shakespeare explores the delicate balances of ambition and power, and how they relate to each other. These elements of society are contrasted as being corrupting, unquenchable forces of evil, or fundamental mechanisms for peace and order. Macbeth’s ravenous greed and its repercussions are vividly enhanced through the use of various expressive literary techniques.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth do as they wish without restrictions to achieve their deepest desires. Macbeth, a respectable general, and before the action of the story, a good man, allows his ambition to …show more content…

These two contrast with others in the play, such as Banquo, Duncan, and Macduff, who also want to be great leaders but refuse to allow ambition to come before honor. Macbeth describes Duncan as an honorary person with respectable values: “Besides, this Duncan . . . So clear in his great office . . . His virtues will plead like angels . . . Against the deep damnation of his taking-off...” (1.7.16-20). This excerpt epitomizes the literary technique of a simile. Effortlessly integrated, this comparison draws a parallel between two otherwise unrelated things, and doing so helps the reader understand the sentiment Shakespeare wishes to convey. Macbeth is an example of how pure ambition, freed from any moral or social conscience, ultimately takes over every other characteristic of a person. In Act I Scene V, Lady Macbeth speaks of Macbeth’s ambition: “Thou wouldst be great; Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it” (1.5.18-20). Although this quote may seem simple, it has much deeper a much deeper meaning than it appears. Once again, Shakespeare incorporates multiple literary elements which clarify and supplement the story’s themes. The “illness” that Lady Macbeth speaks of represents both irony and foreshadowing; it becomes ironic and foreshadows when

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Both greed and power, if not controlled, can lead to destruction. Throughout William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Shakespeare uses both characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to demonstrate how ambition can change one’s personal relationships. As in the beginning of Act 1, Scene 7 Macbeth and Lady Macbeth do not share the same ambition, and it is because of this that their relationship lacks love and affection however through the use of persuasion and other means, Lady Macbeth is able to get Macbeth to pursue her ambition. This not only changes their relationship drastically but it also changes Macbeth’s attitude towards ambition. Throughout the play, Shakespeare shows us through Macbeth, the possibility for ambition to eventually turn into greed and how the lust for power may corrupt us.

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Playwright, William Shakespeare, in his drama, Macbeth, warns about the dangers of how ambition can lead to devastation. His purpose is to demonstrate how greed can drive a person to abandon their morals, and he adopts an unhinged tone in order to affectively shock his audience to its severity. Throughout the play, Shakespeare uses apostrophe, symbolism, and foreshadowing to show that desire for power can lead one’s own destruction. Throughout the drama, Shakespeare uses apostrophe as a way to communicate a character’s emotions to the reader; he does this with Macbeth as well as Lady Macbeth, and while both instances portray how desire for power can lead to the loss of a person’s integrity, it is during Macbeth’s monologue that the reader is able to understand the internal conflict that takes place in a struggle for power.

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Macbeth is Foul, Macbeth is Fair: An Analysis of Macbeth as a Tragic Shakespearean Hero In modern-day life, a tragic hero is an ordinary person who makes a grave mistake in judgement which causes his or her downfall, but does not necessarily result in death. However, in Shakespearean tragedies, a tragic hero is defined as a great literary character of high nobility whose tragic flaw and poor decisions lead to his or her unanticipated downfall and destruction. Ajsdhfjdhalsdhf Macbeth, the main character of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, fulfills the role of a tragic hero because of his rising status, the catharsis he provides for the audience, and his tragic flaw which leads to his unforeseen downfall. In every Shakespearean tragedy, the tragic hero is known to be either a war hero or a character of high status before the story turns for the worst; Macbeth covers both of these

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