Macbeth Ambition Research Paper

When you think of ambition , you think about the passion to want something and you think about all the things that can help you reach the goal of your ambition. Ambition is a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically needing determination and hard work. Throughout many scenes and lines during the poem you see people who have ambition and also see the bad things that ambition can make you do. It is shown by many people who all wanted something that they couldn’t just have. This essay will focus on certain roles and see how exactly ambition can make people do things just to get something that they want.

Macbeth is a play about having too much ambition. The witches predictions push both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to try to fulfill their ambitions, but the witches never make Macbeth

or his wife do anything. Macbeth and his wife do everything on their own in order to get what they want. Macbeth allows his ambition to overtake him and becomes a murdering, paranoid maniac. In act one macbeth’s plan is simply murder as he says, “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man That function is sin surmise, and nothing is but what is not.” (1.3.52-55).In these lines Macbeth’s first thought is about killing the king and that is really suspicious and almost like they've just awoken a murderous ambition that's been there all along.

Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to be great and powerful, and they both will sacrifice their morals . By comparing these two characters with others in the play like Duncan and Macduff, who also want to be great leaders but will not allow ambition to come before honor and pride. Macbeth shows how ambition, freed from any sort of moral or social conscience, takes over every other characteristic of a person. Macbeth suggests ambition can never be pleased , and therefore quickly grows into a bad guy that will destroy anyone who gives into it.

Lady Macbeth shows plenty of ambition not only for herself but also for her husband. Lady Macbeth knows that if her husband was to kill everyone who has a chance of being king before her husband does than she can become the queen and also have her husband as the king. Lady Macbeth also knows that she can persuade macbeth to do whatever she wants because she is his wife. All throughout the story macbeth thinks about doing things that he knows are wrong and he does not really want to do it but just to be sure he does them anyways. In act 1 lady macbeth’s ambition is seen when she says,

“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be What thou art promised.

Yet do I fear thy nature; It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without

The illness should attend it.”(1.5.15-20)

After reading the letter from her husband Lady Macbeth's thoughts immediately turn to murder. The only problem is that Macbeth has ambition, but he doesn’t have the nerve to see it through. Luckily Lady Macbeth is man enough for both of them. Macbeth has the ambition but Lady Macbeth has the Ambition and the drive to do bad things in order to get whatever she wants at that point and time.

Banquo is another person who has ambition all throughout the story of macbeth. Lord Banquo is at first an ally to Macbeth and they are together when they meet the Three Witches. After knowing that Macbeth will become king, the witches tell Banquo that he will not be king himself, but that his descendants will be. Banquo was feeling kind of left as he said in act one, “My noble partner You greet with present grace and great prediction of noble having and of royal hope, That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak

not.

If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak, then, to me, who neither beg nor fear Your favors nor your hate. (1.3.57-64)”. Later, Macbeth in his lust for power sees Banquo as a threat and has him murdered; Banquo's son, Fleance, escapes. Banquo's ghost returns in a later scene, causing Macbeth to react different during a public feast.
At the end of the day you see how ambition can cause crazy things to go on inside of other people heads. Ambition is a very strong thing and can cause you to cross people out who you wouldn’t even think about if your in your regular state of mind.