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Greed and ambition of macbeth
Greed and ambition of macbeth
Greed and ambition of macbeth
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Selfish people end up having their self. Not everyone in this world is not greed and selfishness, everyone all wanted to be rich and become powerful. Even a virtuous and honest person can be manipulated by greedy and selfish to turn into an evil and dishonest person. Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth reveals how a virtuous and honest person can be easily contributed to power and wealth and alter into an evil and dishonest person. Macbeth, the character, represents how power and selfishness can easily contribute a loyal and virtuous person into an disloyal and evil. When the play begins, Macbeth a loyal kinsman and subject of King Duncan, the king of Scotland that every respect and cherish who used power to honor those are faithful, his loyalty and honor to the king can be revealed as his ambition for his …show more content…
After winning an important battle Macbeth shows his loyalty to the king by saying “doing every thing Safe toward your love and honour” (I.iv.26). He said that it is his duty and service to serve the king and be loyal to him, proving that he is a loyal kinsman and subject of the king. Even though, Macbeth desires to be king he still is loyal and serves the king as it his own honor. Later in the play, Macbeth stated to himself about the witches prophecies that if fate wants him to be king, then fate will crown him king without his "stir"(I.ii.20). Macbeth's saying that if fate already wants him to be king then he will let fate crown him without him killing the king. This reveals that Macbeth is an honorable person even though he wants to be a king, but he won't let his greed get to him. Instead, he will let fate crown him. If Macbeth was greedy, then he would have killed already to pursue what he wanted. This makes it clear that Macbeth is an honorable and loyal person, even his desire to be a king, he still proves his loyalty and honor to the king and did not want to betray the
While the name "Macbeth" means "son of life" in Gaelic, Shakespeare contradicts its meaning as he shows the gruesome consequences that Macbeth faces. Macbeth, a modern tragedy written by Shakespeare, cautions the audience of those consequences. He highlights the terrible choices driven by ambition that Macbeth makes, and in the process, warns the reader to stay away from those choices. Shakespeare's use of symbolism in Macbeth reveals greed's power to destroy one's mind and soul.
The play The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare is about selfishness controlling our lives and reveals that selfishness can come to the point of controlling our lives that it blinds us to our own actions. One major example is in the dagger speech in Act 2 Scene 1. In his speech Macbeth sees a hallucination of a dagger floating in the air pointing to Duncan’s chamber. Here Macbeth is completely infatuated with the thought of being king himself. Not only is he thinking crazy thoughts, he is starting to see things that are a “sign” of exactly what he wants. Some other examples of Macbeth’s selfishness is when Macbeth says, ”If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis, It shall make honor for you” (2.1.24-25). Here Macbeth is trying to
Throughout the play, Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, Macbeth continuously decides bad choices and the consequences of these decisions catch up to Macbeth and result in his mental deterioration, however with Macbeth’s almost infant feel for ambition this makes him susceptible to manipulation, which then grows into an insatiable appetite for power. The acts of this with the manipulation from outsiders, causes his blind ambition, his false sense of security and then finally his guilt, which all contribute to his derangement.
Throughout the play, Macbeth’s ambition steadily progresses. Macbeth realizes that his ambition is the only thing that really makes him want to kill the king because it is for his own benefit. This is evident when Macbeth says,
As someone who had already experienced honour as a celebrated general (1.4), Macbeth’s desire for further glory was greatly strengthened by the prophecies, because of which he contemplated murdering Duncan even though there was no justifiable reason for doing so. True to his intention – and bolstered by his wife’s encouragement – Macbeth finally murdered a sleeping King Duncan and was proclaimed king, but not without unnatural occurrences that foreshadowed an evil end. Therefore, the reader notices that selfish desire for power corrupted Macbeth’s motive for becoming king from the beginning, and eventually led him to commit the horrible act of
We first start to see Macbeth getting his ambition to become king in his quote when he says "if chance will have me king, why chance may crown me, without my stir"(I.iii.34-37). Here we see that Macbeth is growing impatient and eager to become the king. He just doesn’t want to sit back and wait for himself to be crowned and let destiny run it’s course, he wants to be part of it when it happens, and he wants to be king right now. And this is when it all turns downhill. He is starting to become very ambitious for the thrown. We will also soon see that he will stop at nothing short of killing the current king and he will even go so far as to kill one of his friends, and try to kill his son in order to try and become the new king.
Macbeth shifts from being loyal and courageous to a murderer executing a treacherous plan to kill the current king due to supernatural suggestions that he would be king himself. Macbeth is discussed as a man worthy of recognition by other characters in act one scene two. In this scene, the Captain states: “For brave Macbeth (well he deserves that name)” (1. 2. 18). Macbeth is being praised for his courage and loyalty to Scotland and the king. This first impression is hastily contrasted after hearing the prophecy of the witches stating he will be “king hereafter” (1. 3. 53). Immediately after hearing this, Macbet...
In the beginning of the play, Macbeth is described as being “valiant”. He is a skilled warrior, who is loyal to his king and his country. Almost single-handedly, he wins the war for Scotland. He defeats many of the enemy soldiers, including a traitor, all in the name of his king. But, when three witches encounter Macbeth and his friend Banquo, Macbeth’s ambition begins to grow. They tell Macbeth that he will be Thane of Cawdor and King. Soon after, Macbeth meets with King Duncan. He informs Macbeth that he is the new Thane of Cawdor. Macbeth is astonished, and from then on he is obsessed with being king. His ambition begins to become ruthless when Duncan proclaims that his son Malcolm is the Prince of Cumberland, and therefore, the heir to the throne: “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 and deep desires:/The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be/Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.” (I,iv,48-53) At this moment, Macbeth, realizing that they stand in the way of the witches’ prophecies, decides that both Duncan and Malcolm need to die for him to be king. As soon as Macbeth kills Duncan, he enters into a world of evil. Later in the play, Macbeth’s ambition becomes increasingly ruthless. He kills his best friend Banquo, and almost kills Banquo’s son, Fleance, because he believes they would stand in the way of his reign. The witches told Banquo “Thou shall get kings, though thou be none.” (I,iii,67) This means that Banquo himself would not be a king, but that his successors would be. Macbeth tries to prevent this by killing Banquo and his son Fleance.
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the protagonist chooses to forgo civic responsibility in order to act upon his true desire of having power. This conflict not only provides for the majority of the plot, it provides Macbeth with depth of character and makes him far more relatable for the audience, and ultimately gives the work greater credibility as a tragedy by allowing the audience to empathize with the protagonist. Macbeth, over the course of the play, fails to balance his loyalty to king and country with his desire for the crown. As a general in King Duncan’s army and the Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, Macbeth is a servant to the Scottish King. However, temptation strikes, and the he soon finds himself stained with royal blood.
In the play Macbeth, Macbeth's ambition was to become king. But the only that he saw fit to become king was to kill Duncan. Duncan and Macbeth were cousins, and Duncan was a kind person to Macbeth. But Macbeth was blinded by his ambition. Macbeth said, "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on the other," (Act I Scene VII). By this quote, Macbeth meant that the only reason he sees to kill Duncan was because he wanted to become king. He didn't think about the future consequences or repercussions. At first Macbeth was loyal, but his ambition overcame his morals a kind-heartedness and made him evil.
Macbeth’s blind ambition leads him to surrender to his dark desires that taunt him throughout the play. Macbeth is frequently tempted to result to the wrongful methods that seem to roam inside of him. In the beginning however Macbeth tends to ignore these desires and depends on chance. He declares “if chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, without my stir” (Shakespeare, act 1, scene 3, 143-144). This declaration by Macbeth shows his initial stand, which is reliant on fate and sin free. Yet as Macbeth’s character develops throughout the play, he moves farther from his dependence on chance and closer to his darker desires. Eventually his blind ambition to become king overp...
instill in him the need to be King. Still, desire is not enough for Macbeth and he is thus driven "to seek certainty as his one objective. He wants certainty from the witches . . . at whatever cost" (Campbell 228). Macbeth, however, is not completely lost yet; honour and justice remain in him, and although it takes him some time to fully consider the consequences of the witches' words on him, he rejects his horrible thoughts of murder and postpones all action: "If chance will have me king, why,chance may crown me, / Without my stir" (I. iii.143-144). For the time being, Macbeth's true essence is in control, that of loyalty and honour.
Macbeth, whom initially was a very reasonable and moral man, could not hold off the lure of ambition. This idea is stated in the following passage: "One of the most significant reasons for the enduring critical interest in Macbeth's character is that he represents humankind's universal propensity to temptation and sin. Macbeth's excessive ambition motivates him to murder Duncan, and once the evil act is accomplished, he sets into motion a series of sinister events that ultimately lead to his downfall." (Scott; 236). Macbeth is told by three witches, in a seemingly random and isolated area, that he will become Thank of Cawdor and eventually king. Only before his ambition overpowers his reasoning does he question their motives. One place this questioning takes place is in the following passage:
Macbeth shows how greed and ambition can bring down a person as well as others and how the changes of power occur because of loyalty and betrayal. Macbeth is the play’s main unhappy character. The play tells of Macbeth's greedy thirst for power is a dangerous trait.
Though tentative at first, it is clear the Macbeth desires to be king. As explained by Hunt, his current, newly appointed title is not enough for him as “ the augmentation of titles cannot appease the insatiability of desire, which never rests content with the new title but continues to feel the pain of existential hunger, of mortal incompleteness.” (hunt), leading him to desire for greater power. While the witches mention Macbeth’s possible rise to kingship through the death of Duncan, it is Macbeth who jumps to the possibility of the king’s murder saying, “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? Present fears Are less than horrible imaginings. (1.3.138-142).” There are many ways that the king could die, yet it is his desire for power leads him to pick the speediest path to the king’s end. Macbeth does in fact end up killing the king, as well as his best friend to protect his claim to power. From there he quickly becomes drunk with his rule and starts to terrorize the land, forgetting his morals and saying that he’ll just do whatever he feels when ever he feels like it. These actions lead to his death along with the many others who starve or bleed under his rule. Because of his desire for power, Macbeth causes the destruction of his soul, the end of his life