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Theme Of Ambition And Violence In Macbeth

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Ambition and violence are a recurring theme throughout the entirety of the play. Violence is shown throughout through various things. This likely because of the time period that Macbeth is set in where being a warrior made you honored by many people. In the story Macbeth is a warrior revered throughout Scotland. Even though he has a reputation like his Macbeth has a major flaw which ultimately leads to his downfall at the end of the play. The character trait downfall that Macbeth suffers from is his ambition for more power. Macbeth’s wife has an ambition for power also and might even have a bigger thirst for it than her husband. She already wanted Macbeth to kill the king when finding about and pushed for him to do it when he was unsure …show more content…

When Macbeth rethinks killing Duncan he says “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other” (25-28). Macbeth has no reason to kill Duncan and admits that Duncan is a good king and that he wants to kill him just to have the power for himself. When Malcom finds Duncan’s body he says this in his rage “Gainst nature still! Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up thine own lives’ means! Then tis most like the sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth” (39-42). Ross is right about one thing: ambition is to blame for Duncan's murder. He is wrong about the most important part, though. Here, he accuses Duncan's kids of killing their father when Macbeth is the one he should be accusing and not Duncan’s children. Even though Lady Macbeth has ambition like her husband she fears Macbeth’s nature “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it” (15-20). After reading the letter from her husband which recounts the witches' prophesy, Lady Macbeth's thoughts immediately turn to murder. The problem with that is Macbeth has ambition, but he doesn’t have the nerve to see it through.

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Macbeth doubts his plan to murder Duncan and is unable to motivate himself to take action. There is tension between Macbeth's unwillingness to move ahead with his plan and his acknowledgment that his ambition is leading him down a dangerous path. Macbeth notes, “I have no spur to prick the sides for the intent, but the only vaulting notes ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on th’ other” (1. 7. 25-29). Macbeth knows that he has lacked motivation and ambition, and he knows that it’s the only thing preempting disasters to come his way as he makes mistakes.

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The play Macbeth involves a lot of ambition and negation. Macbeth was a great Scottish general. Macbeth comes along three witches and they tell him that he will be king. He listens to him and his strong leads him to wanting to become king. He will kill anyone that gets in his way.

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Macbeth, three witches tell Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland which prompts Macbeth to devise a plan to kill the reigning King Duncan and claim the throne for himself. In act 1 scene 7, Macbeth hesitates with continuing the planned murder of Duncan, but Lady Macbeth successfully persuades him to carry it out. Shakespeare argues that ambition causes people to become greedy which leads them to commit evil acts. Lady Macbeth's determination to continue with the murder of King Duncan

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What Macbeth essentially says here is that his only motivation for killing King Duncan is his ambition. Many would argue that it was not Macbeth’s ambition that caused him to kill King Duncan but instead was his wife using her femininity in order to charm Macbeth into doing as she says . However, Macbeth’s hunger for power was already seen when King Duncan gives Malcolm the title of Prince of Cumberland. Macbeth tells himself that he must not reveal his true intentions: “Stars, hide your fires! Let not light see my black and deep desires.”

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Following, Macbeth has too much ambition when he kills Duncan, which causes him to betray his moral conscience. Macbeth states, “I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but only/ Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself/ And falls on th’ other-”(1.7.25-28). This is important because

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Ambition or murder? Lady Macbeth’s ambition and her desire to become the queen is the driving force behind Duncan and her husband’s demise. This can be seen in her decision to act upon the prophecy, her questioning of Macbeth’s manhood when he was unwilling to kill Duncan and the fact that she was the one guilty for coming up with a plan to murder Duncan.

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Like all of Shakespeare’s other plays, “Macbeth’s” protagonist Macbeth is incredibly successful but suffers from one fatal flaw, his great ambition. His ambition will be the cause of his great success but ultimately also of his downfall. The man’s ambition drives him to seize every opportunity to promote his own agenda. His ambition hurts him the most when he decides to kill King Duncan and Macduff.

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Violence in the Story of Macbeth by William Shakespeare In the begging of the story of Macbeth, there are many tragedies that happen throughout the whole story. Violence played an important role in the story of Macbeth that made a big impact in some of the characters that caused a complete change up. For example one of the characters that violence made a huge difference in them that was noticeable was Macbeth. In the beginning Macbeth was very calm and not violent but afterwards there was a lot of conflict during the story and Macbeth started being so mean and violent it created more conflict (Cohen n.p.).

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Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o ' th ' milk of human kindness ,To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great,Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it.” Also concludes that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth always wanted to kill King Duncan from the very past and that when they got to know that they can be the king and queen they were ready and prepared to kill Duncan

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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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At the end of the play, Macbeth’s ambition caused him to lose Lady Macbeth to suicide and to no longer have moral sense. Ambition led to Macbeth’s downfall because Lady Macbeth and the witches caused him to make brainless decisions that caused his collapse. Macbeth’s ambition led to his downfall because of Lady Macbeth's ambition. Lady Macbeth had

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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.

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Shakespeare's tragedy, Macbeth, analyzes the tragic downfall of a man who pursued his prophecy given to him by three witches, and suffered the downfall because of it. Told his power was inevitable, Macbeth explores the idea of murdering the King to achieve his goal of becoming King himself. Macbeth continually faces this, contemplating the moral issue of committing murder to in turn, fulfill his powerful destiny. While facing this internal conflict, Lady Macbeth developes an influence over Macbeth as well. Driven by her own desire to be Queen, Lady Macbeth persuades Macbeth to commit the murder, by challenging his manhood and often reminding him that it is, in fact, his destiny.

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780 Words | 4 Pages

Lady Macbeth is power hungry for the throne and she will do anything to achieve her goal. Her pleasure of having the thought of killing Duncan is revealed. These murderous thoughts that run through her mind shows how desperate she is to acquire power. Although it is the beginning of the play, her dark ambitions sets a dark tone for her character in the play. This coincidentally adds to the assurance of Macbeth’s prophecy which is that Macbeth will become king, but King Duncan is still alive.

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1241 Words | 5 Pages

“If good, why do I yield to that suggestion[killing Duncan]/Whose horrid image doth unify my hair” (I, III, 144-145). This quote indicates that the force of ambition is so strong within Macbeth that even he himself cannot understand why it is making him think of killing Duncan. Likewise, Macbeth’s ambition to become king is further emphasized after Duncan names his son Malcolm as his successor. Here, Macbeth says that he will have to “oerleap,/For in my way it [Malcolm] it lies” (I, III, 55-57).

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