Do the desires that are burnt deep into our memories hold us from the things we desire most, or does this ambition from within help us to succeed in our endeavors? Shakespeare uses the contrasting of characters to show the pitfalls of ambition in his play Macbeth. These desires that are withheld in the deepest corners of our minds may stay there depending upon a person’s level of ambition. There is a point at which that level of ambition becomes too high, this is when we are capable of crossing the line of moral borders which when crossed puts in danger our immortal soul.
Ambition in most levels are good as long as those levels are kept below the crossing line between moral and immoral actions, a perfect example of the validation of ambition is Banquo. Banquo is an honest hard working man who stays as that static character throughout the play the “angel on Macbeth’s shoulder.” Then we have the flip side of the situation with the character whom shows all characteristics of an immortal being, the temptress, Lady Macbeth. She uses her cunning skills to persuade Macbeth to do her “dirt work” as she watches in relation it seems, yet it is soon revealed that her subconscious self may not feel so wonderful about all of the things she has done.
Macbeth and Banquo are equally ambitious young men they have just returned from war in their country as war heroes being valiant in all that a war hero is said to be, and yet we see that upon the message given to them by the three weird sisters their underlying personalities will surface. Both young men are given a prophecy revealing that their futures twain will be filled with power and riches, the difference between these two men is divulged in their separate response to this news.
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Banquo being an honest man is prospectful and wishful for the prophecy to come true but does not plan to take any specific actions toward the prophecy’s fulfillment. “That trusted home, Might yet enkindle you unto the crown, Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But ’tis strange. And oftentimes, to win us to our harm, the instruments of darkness tell us truths, win us with honest trifles, to betray’s in deepest consequence.” Here he tells Macbeth that he too is indulged in a thorough fulfillment of the prophecy that they were given, and yet he feels as though it is wrong to take any action towards the becoming of said prophecy.
Instead Banquo dreams about the weird sisters and all that they shared with him and Macbeth. He then later attempts discuss’ it with the one whom he was originally told, Macbeth, yet his comrade passes it off as though he had completely forgotten about the weird sisters and all that they had told Banquo and Macbeth. “Banquo- I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters. To you they have showed some truth. Macbeth- I think not of them.” Here we see Macbeth lying to his companion along the journey to his demise this is a turning point for the Thane of Cawdor, prior to the murder of Duncan.
Macbeth begins taking nearly the exact opposite route as his companion, Banquo, Macbeth’s thoughts and actions are overtaken by the witches prediction as he yearns to hear more from the witches but they disappear from his sight leaving him to contemplate his next step. Upon the arrival of Ross and his companions Macbeth and Banquo are informed that the first portion of the prophecy has come true, this occurrence urges Macbeth’s ambition nearer to the edge of action then after speaking with his wife he is inclined to take full motion in ensuring the prophecy’s fulfillment.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are very ambitious people whom have worked to get ahead and take any opportunities given to them, they strive towards their ambitions. The divide we find between these two main characters are exposed in their own individual weaknesses. For example Macbeth’s weaknesses is his wife, because she is capable of revealing a side of him that he goes to great lengths to keep hidden. “Bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue. Look like the innocent flower. But be the serpent underneath it.”
Macbeth is resilient towards his wife’s cunning nature at first then slowly as she persuades him he begins to fall under her spell. Lady Macbeth’s weakness is her morality because no matter how conniving and evil of a persona she portrays on the outside, her conscience is unclean due to her moral wrong doings. “Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him? The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands never be clean?”
These weaknesses are revealed when the couple together surpass the level at which their ambition precedes their moral knowledge, whether that be killing Duncan, or the murders of Banquo and the attempted murder of his son, or the murders of Fife. It is also how they handle themselves when they are influenced by their personal ambition that their contrasts are revealed. Macbeth’s ambition for power is originally tempted by the three witches yet he does not act upon that ambition until he is persuaded to do so by his cunning wife.
“If good why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs against the use of nature?”This element of the plot reflects the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. Macbeth acts as Adam as he acknowledges the temptation but is resilient towards it knowing that its is wrong, until his significant other being cunning in nature herself influences him to act otherwise than he knows to be correct.
Lady macbeth reflects the character of Eve as she sees something better that she knows that this act is morally wrong but she can see herself succeeding through the acts and so takes it upon herself to ensure that she does in fact succeed. “He that’s coming must be provided for; and you shall put this night’s great business into my dispatch, which shall to all our nights and days to come give solely sovereign sway masterdom.” Finishing our cast for the Garden of Eden the three Weird sisters act as the snake revealing what could be to Macbeth thusly tempting his inner desires to the fullest only to have his ambition shoved over the edge by his own conniving wife.
As Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are both alike in their expression of their ambition their mortal souls act differently in the ways that they react to the actions or steps that the characters take in order to reach their goals. They are contrasting in such a way that as Macbeth’s morality slowly fades away leaving him with a shell of a man covered in armor, Lady Macbeth’s morality grows stronger till the point she can no longer clear her conscience and instead rids herself of it.
Banquo and Macbeth though given the same excitement in a prophetic tale are just as contrasting as they are alike. Banquo is an honest and valiant gentleman who fights for what he believes to be right and just, defending his country until the very end. Macbeth on the other hand though having the mask of a valiant hero has a ture cloak of ambition to block his moral needs from his ambitious behaviours.
