The Role Of Ambition In Macbeth

Set in Scotland in the Middle ages, Macbeth powerful tragedy by William Shakespeare, where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth let their ambition overtake them and are ultimately destroyed. He draws attention to the inner lives of these two characters, described as “the butcher and his fiend-like queen”. He subverts the audience’s expectation by introducing a powerful female character, creates vivid imagery in the hallucinations that reflect the inner turmoil of the characters and juxtaposes the destructive force of ambition on the chain of being to reflect the inner conflict of the characters.

Shakespeare captures the audience’s attention by subverting the audience expectation for a woman’s role in marriage. He allows Lady Macbeth a powerful role and to control the plot by manipulating

The appearance of Banquo’s ghost shows the first prominent sign of Macbeth losing control and shows the extent that his guilt is having on his sanity. This event allows for dramatic irony as only Macbeth and the audience know the face of the ghost, with the Lords being unaware of the gruesome murder of Banquo. Macbeth challenges the ghost, saying “thou canst not say I did it. Never shake/Thy gory locks at me,” revealing his desperation to hide his guilt and his paranoid state of mind. Similarly, Lady Macbeth’s hallucinations of washing her hands reveal the emotional strain of her guilt. Shakespeare reveals her inner feelings of guilt and sorrow when she wonders if “these hands ne'er be clean?”. The depression and despair is the first time she reveals her feminine feelings. It is so unlike the powerful character of the opening scenes, and allows the audience to identify with her grief and pity her. Shakespeare engrosses the audience with the complexities of the character’s inner lives and the misery they face in fulfilling ambition by sacrificing