Theme Of Unbalance In Nature In Macbeth

Everyone is familiar with ambition. Without it, no one would get anywhere in life. However, there is such a thing as negative ambition. Ambitions for the wrong things - white ethnostates, genocide, slavery, oppression, etc. - or using terrible methods to achieve goals - murder, tyranny, torture - will bring disaster. In Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth, Macbeth uses despicable methods to achieve his dream of being King of Scotland. Shakespeare uses foreshadowing, characterization of Macbeth, and the motif of unbalance in nature to develop the theme that unchecked ambition carried out in an evil way will lead to a person’s downfall.

Foreshadowing plays a major role in theme development throughout the play, starting from Act I. The Thane

One of the biggest representations of this is the sky going dark. “By the clock ‘tis day, / And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp,” (2.4.6-7). Darkness is often associated with wrongdoing, and the dark sky in the middle of the day is the world rejecting the abnormality of Macbeth murdering the King. Two of Duncan’s horses - trained to be obedient and gentle at all times - broke out of their stalls despite their usual calm and ate each other. This unbalance in nature affects not only the physical world of birds and horses, but also disturbances in Macbeth’s very human nature. Sleep is one of the most natural things for humans; without sleep we would die. After Macbeth kills Duncan, he begins to lose his ability to sleep, facing nightmares and hallucinations every time he attempts it. Loss of his ability to sleep represents Macbeth shedding a very human quality and changing into something almost inhumane. The breaking out of the stalls by the two horses represents Macbeth’s ambition being freed into action, and their eating of each other represent how Macbeth’s ambition - originally liberating - ends only with disaster and death not just for him but also for the natural world around