Ambition is a desire or want for something which usually is good but not necessarily. Macbeth showed that ambition is not always the best thing. For him ambition was not even on his mind until he got power, and once he got power he just craved more and more. His ambition at first was to not do bad but in the end it was the cause of his death. Overtime he becomes obsessed with power and desire for dominance. Macbeth’s ambition grows stronger once he is king and he becomes morally bankrupt.
At the beginning of the play Macbeth is shown as brave, loyal and will do anything in his power to defeat the enemy. He tends to show great acts of courageousness and effort on and off the battlefield. Once King Duncan sees that Macbeth and Banquo defeated Macdonwald’s army he is astonished and pleased with the leadership Macbeth has shown. The leadership Macbeth showed was a great deed to his country. With that King Duncan rewards him with the Thane of Cawdor because of how proud he is of Macbeth for doing what he did for his people.
Once he is pronounced the thane him and Lady Macbeth are both exhilarated. His understanding of power seemed to be good at first but once he really saw what power can give, he just wanted more and more. Before making any actions it seemed he was starting to lose his mind and he would do anything in his power to make sure he came first and pretty much had everything given to him. Lady Macbeth also seemed like a push at Macbeth for losing his mind because she was also sick in the head. For example when she said “I have given suck,and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me would, while it was smiling in my face have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out “(1.7). She was violent and craved authority just like her husband.
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Initially after gaining the title of Thane of Cawdor, he remained humble and morally upright. However, soon after the victory, he heard of the Witches prophecy and realized ambition within himself. Although he had come across ambition, his intention to use it was little. It was Lady Macbeth that fully persuaded Macbeth to use his ambition in order to gain power and position as King of Scotland. Under her influence, Macbeth murdered King Duncan to gain kingship and killed the guards in order to cover up his wrongdoing. Once he killed him he became overwhelmed with guilt and anxiety. He begins to hallucinate and has a hard time controlling his emotions. This showed what he was capable of and that wouldn’t be the last time he would kill.
Macbeth remembered that the witches said in the future Banquo’s children will become King. He now saw Banquo and his son as a threat and wants to kill them. Macbeth comes up with a plan and hires murderers to kill them when there horseback riding in the forest. They are also ordered to kill Macfuffs family which they succeed at doing. The murderers succeed in killing Banquo but Fleance escapes and survives.
Once the murderers are done Macbeth begins to lose his sanity. He starts to lose sleep and even sees Banquo’s ghost “were the graced person of our Banqou’s present”(3.4.42). He becomes bloodthirsty and overconfident in his abilities as king. Even though he thought killing was the right thing to do, he regrets it and feels guilty but at the same time he will still have the power in the future so he is probably somewhat happy. Another thing that he sees is floating bloody daggers. The symbolic significance is that Macbeth feels torn between guilt and temptation about the murder of Duncan. Another thing is the vision of the dagger indicates that he is spiraling into madness. Macbeth imagines the dagger as a manifestation of his guilt over the nature of his actions. His downfall comes as a result of his ambition.
So far Macbeth has had Duncan, the guards, Banquo, and Macduff’s family all murdered and this is what his ambition looked like. Even if he feels guilty for the murders he can’t take them back and he will have to live with that remorse. It shows that his ambition got the best of him and he isn’t a stable king.
In the last couple of scenes they find out lady Macbeth is mentally ill and she needs help but Macbeth doesn’t have time to care for her because people are trying to kill him. This shows that Macbeth may have not loved his wife as much as having power as king. Once she kills herself it almost seemed like he didn’t have time to grieve her death. He was being attacked at the time this all happened but should have done something.
Macbeth becomes very cocky while fighting all the men “You’re wasting your time trying to wound me. You might as well try to stab the air with your sword. Go fight someone who can be harmed. I lead a charmed life, which can’t be ended by anyone born from a woman”(5.8). This shows who Macbeth really was and that he wasn’t afraid of dying. It seemed he would rather die than have anyone else in power. If he would have never wanted so much power he could have been a great king and leader but it got to his head and he just lost his mind.
When it comes to ambition not all of it can be destructive. But Macbeth showed the side of it on how it can be destructive. Becoming morally bankrupt was not Macbeth’s plan the whole time but once he got a sense of ambition that is where his downfall started. Throughout the whole play he showed many different emotions like grief, happiness, anxiety and many more. The three most important were ambition, remorse and fear. These feelings came out to play once he first started to get the feel of power and they never left his mind after that. These feelings provoked him to evil and vicious things.
The ambition he had was easily fuelled by the deceiving witches. In the beginning Macbeth maintains control of his ambition into helping those he is loyal to but after hearing what could be, he reaches for more. Once he takes drastic measures to try and reach his goals, he is filled with regret and knows he is guilty for his actions. Macbeth’s ambition leads him to secure power. He overlooks his guilt and focuses on doing whatever it takes to hold onto his authority. He realizes that he has been tricked by the three witches and simply doesn’t want to live anymore because he knows his ambition caused him to break all bonds of loyalty and trust.
Macbeth probably would have done great things as a king because he was brave, loyal in the beginning and was a leader on the battlefield. He ruined it by having too much passion for power. When having ambition he could have done good things and saved himself and others but decided to do the wrong. Too much ambition can lead to death of others who do not deserve to die. When using ambition in a good way people can think about setting up for the future and doing good in the world. Macbeth is a great example of morally bankrupt.
