Consequence of Ambition in Macbeth by William Shakespeares (Free Essay Sample)

Ambition is something that drives people to accomplish their goals. It is a great emotion, except when there is too much of it. When people become overly ambitious it can lead them to self destruction. This idea of ambition is presented in the play, Tragedy of Macbeth, by William Shakespeares. The play was written in 17th century England, but the setting of it is in Scotland, during the 11th century. During this time period, witchcraft and the supernatural was greatly believed in, especially by King James I of England. Macbeth, the main character of the play, is given a prophecy by three witches that he will soon become king. Giving him this idea, he now desires to become king and this starts his downfall. Macbeth becomes overly ambitious about becoming king and this influences him to kill the current king. But is Macbeth as evil as the crimes he commits? No, Macbeth is a misunderstood character who is blinded by desire and manipulated into murder. 

Macbeth is a misunderstood character, who  falls victim to his own ambition of becoming king: he is manipulated by three witches and his wife, Lady Macbeth. In the start of the play Macbeth is visited by the witches that bow to him and chant:

FIRST WITCH: All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!

SECOND WITCH: All hail Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!

THIRD WITCH: All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! (I. III. 48-50).

Macbeth at first ignores what they say, but eventually he thinks of it more and more. Even if he believes it or not, the idea of him becoming king remains, which makes him become ambitious. This motivates him, but what finally pushes him into taking action and killing the king is Lady Macbeth.  Though both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth create a plan to kill Duncan, Macbeth backs out last minute;Lady Macbeth, to push him into doing it, says, “When you durst do it, then you were a man; / And to be more than what you were, you would / Be so much more the man” (1.7.49-51). Lady Macbeth threatens Macbeth's manhood for being too squeamish to kill Duncan. Macbeth cares about his wife and does not  want her thinking he is a coward. This puts him  in a hard place and makes him reluctantly kill Duncan. Macbeth would have never killed King Duncan if not for the witches and his wife manipulating him into it. This is why Macbeth is a misunderstood character.

Macbeth is thought of at first as a very powerful character who has no problem with getting his hands dirty. But this is quite the opposite, Macbeth cannot mentally handle the crimes he is committing. After killing Duncan Macbeth cannot handle the guilt, he becomes disgusted with himself and says, “‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep’- the innocent sleep” (2.2. 47-48). Macbeth is so distraught with himself that he refers to himself in 3rd person, not willing to accept that he is Macbeth, who just killed Duncan. This feeling of guilt continues once more when he decides to send assassins to kill Banquo. His plan works but later on his guilt starts to get to him and he hallucinates Banquo’s ghost. In horror he shouts, “Thou canst not say I did it. Never shake / Thy gory locks at me” (3.4. 61-62). Macbeth is slowly losing his mind, first he begins to differentiate between himself and now he is seeing things and losing his temper. If he was truly a vile character then he would not have these problems. He would have committed all of these crimes with no guilt and regret.