Ambition as the Root of Macbeth's Downfall

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Ambition as the Root of Macbeth's Downfall

Ambition plays the largest part in Macbeth's downfall. However,

without the interference of the witches his ambition would not have

changed. The witches increase his ambition drastically by the thought

of kingship. Lady Macbeth sees the potential for his ambition to be

great, but knows he will do nothing with it, so she plans it all for

him; all he has to do is stab Duncan.

The three witches are introduced at the beginning of the play; they

give Macbeth three prophecies, that he will be Thane of Cawdor, Thane

of Glamis and King. The witches can foretell the future; they add

temptation and influence Macbeth but they cannot control his destiny.

The witches themselves have no particular goal to reach. When it comes

to Macbeth they are just having fun. As Hecate argues, all they

achieve is:

'How did you dare/ To trade and traffic with Macbeth/ In riddles and

affairs of death'

The language used here by Hecate is dark and unpleasant, and the way 'death'

is used, implies that the witches could have known that their

interference would lead to the death of characters.

The witches are only responsible for the introduction of these ideas

to Macbeth; they are not responsible for his actions throughout the

play. Yet their meddling inevitably causes a change within Macbeth.

This is the growth of his ambition from his previous state. From being

a good and honest man, Macbeth transforms into a conniving plotter

against the King:

'The Prince of Cumberland: that is a step/On which I must fall down.

Or else o'erleap,/For in my way it lies. Stars hide your fires/Let not

light see my black a...

... middle of paper ...

...ow that Macbeth has heard this, he believes that he

must kill Macduff, however he learns that Macduff has fled to England,

so he decides to kill Macduff's family. Macbeth is told he cannot be

killed by any man born of woman. This gives him the confidence that no

matter what the English do he will not be defeated. In addition he is

told that he will not be defeated until the trees of Birnam Wood move

towards his castle. He has put all his faith in these prophecies

because he believes what the witches have said must be true because of

the outcome of the first prediction.

In conclusion, Macbeth has many forces acting upon him, the Witches,

Lady Macbeth, paranoia and ambition. However things would not have got

so out of control if the others factors had not contributed, so

ambition is the main root of Macbeth's downfall.

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