Anna Reder
Period 1B
October 25, 2010
Macbeth Essay
Matich
Ambition
What is ambition? Ambition is described as eager for success, power, or fame. Macbeth was at
first able to keep his ambition in check, however it eventually became strong and overpowered him. Lady
Macbeth was overcome by her own ambition from the very beginning. The motives of the three witches
come into question with their misleading and cunning predictions.
For Macbeth, ambition was what drove him to become great, it forced him to change his nature
towards evil. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was portrayed as a courageous soldier who fought for
his King without mercy. But once the witches planted the seeds of greater things and Lady Macbeth
fuelled his ambition, he became greedy and power hungry. Although the witches did aid in making the
play’s drama escalate, Macbeth was merely influenced into murder. Macbeth is told by three witches,
in a seemingly random and isolated area, that he will become Thane of Cawdor and eventually
king. Only before his ambition overpowers his reasoning does he question their motives. Even
as he questions their motives, he does not come to the logical assumption that these three
evildoers are in fact pushing him down a path filled with evil and despair. He says that their visit
"cannot be ill, cannot be good" (Shakespeare scene 3, line 131) and goes on to explain why it
cannot be either of these two things.
Lady Macbeth was like gasoline on a fire. She made the climax even steeper. Through her
persuasion, Macbeth killed Duncan, which caused him to go crazy and insomniatic. She acted as
Macbeth’s superior and said “When you durst do it, then you were a man,” (Shakespeare scene 7, line 49)
referring to him being a coward if he didn’t kill King Duncan. Since Lady knew that her husband would
never proceed to kill the King on his own, she plans the whole murder and makes him do it. She would’ve
done the evil deed herself if she knew that she would never get caught. She wanted the power of being
Queen, but she didn’t want the blame to be on her, so she influenced Macbeth to kill the King.
The Witches’ ambitions mislead and direct Macbeth down a path of misery, despair, and
eventually death. They call him Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and King. At the time he is only
Thane of Glamis, and is confused by what the witches are telling him, then when the King’s men promote
him to Thane of Cawdor he gets anxious and wants to be King. Although he doesn’t think that he could
ever become king because the king is loved and he is not of royal blood, he still has an ambition to be.
The witches make Macbeth’s ambitions grow fonder and eventually overpower him into going crazy. The
witches are the fire in this case, where Lady Macbeth is the gasoline.
In conclusion, Macbeth’s and Lady Macbeth’s ambitions were insatiable and
overpowering enough to drive the force of the play, as well as the Witches ambitions. Macbeth’s
murder of Duncan is influenced by the dominance of his wife, the witches and his own
ambitions. Macbeth even went as far as to ask for their advice a second time - this second time
would of course lead to his downfall. The decision to kill Duncan also signified the last serious
attempt at moral contemplation on the part of Macbeth. Throughout the novel we see that the
Macbeth's ambition completely led their reasoning abilities and eventually lead to their downfall.