Ambition and the Tragic Demise of Macbeth

Ambition is a disease of the soul and to realise this you need to look no further than Macbeth by William Shakespeare. For in Macbeth is the tale of ambition driving impulse over logic and reason, how an unhealthy thought of treason taints and diseases the very soul. We can see this overriding ambition in the scene where Lady Macbeth is residing in her castle whilst waiting for Macbeth. Whilst alone Lady Macbeth decides that Macbeth lacks the masculinity to do what is necessary to acquire power. So she decides to strip herself of her femininity to gain the masculinity Macbeth does not have. We can see this in the quote “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty.” - Lady Macbeth Act 1 Scene V. This quote shows us through the use of soliloquy what her inner thoughts are and that her intrinsic self is much darker and her ambition is much larger than others currently see. Through the use of emotive language such as “direct cruelty” with its connotations of sadism and malice, we can see that she is willi...