Hailey Lafeen
2/28/12English Honors
Matich
Macbeth Essay
Final Draft
Macbeth Essay
“Characterize the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. If the main theme of
Macbeth is ambition whose ambition is the driving force in the play- Macbeth’s, Lady Macbeth’s
or both?”
I think that in a sense it was both Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s ambition that was the
driving ambition. It started with Lady Macbeth who had a greater ambition until she started
feeling guilty then, Macbeth started feeling guilty and his ambition grew.
In the first act Macbeth is an honorable soldier and Lady Macbeth is known as a good
lady, until Macbeth goes to the Three Weird Sisters. After this point it all goes downhill. After
his visit with the weird sisters Macbeth writes back to his wife telling her about the prophesies.
(Shakespeare: Macbeth Act 1 Sc. 5. Ln 1-14). This is where the ambition starts, at this point
Lady Macbeth is set on Macbeth becoming king and she the queen, no matter what. When he
arrives home, she sets up the plan to kill Duncan and take reign of Scotland. At first Macbeth
doesn’t take it seriously and doesn’t want to go through with the plan until Lady Macbeth presses
all the right buttons by challenging his manhood, then he is set to prove he is a “man” and kill
King Duncan, and at this point the ambition is shared. We know that at this point its Lady
Macbeth driving the ambition because we can already see signs of guilt in Macbeth when he
starts hallucinating about the dagger, showing that he really doesn’t want to do it.
After he killed Duncan Lady Macbeth’s ambition fades away and Macbeth’s takes over.
Although his ambition changed to trying to hide the fact that he murdered Duncan but he goes
about it all the wrong ways. Killing people and hiring people to kill people he was once close to,
such as Banquo, Fleaunce, and Macduff’s Family, all because he let his ambition to hide his guilt
overcome his life. (Shakespeare: Macbeth Act 3 sc. 1). But in the end ambition is what really
screwed everyone over, because guilt drove them to kill Duncan which lead Macbeth and Lady
Macbeth to feel guilty. Which lead Lady Macbeth to telling people what she’d done in her sleep
and eventually leading to suicide. Which Macbeth’s lead to his great downfall of being murdered
by Macduff.
Ambition can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be a terrible thing. With the right
ambitions we can grow. We push ourselves to become better people and teach ourselves to
succeed and become very successful. Although there are also bad ambitions like the ambitions
Macbeth had, that tear us down and make us weak. The ones that pull us away from our loved
ones, and make us feel like we have to lie.
Works Sited
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Folger. New York: Washington Square Press, 1992.