Ambition
George Orwell and shakespeare share many of the same views on ambition in the world, being either individual ambition, or that of an entire nation. Both authors play with the idea that ambition can be good, or sometimes very bad, leading people to corruption and self-destruction.
Both Macbeth and Winston fall into this trap where they believe and lay trust in information that aligns with their own desires. They let their desires blind them from rational thinking, and they let it influence their decisions and carry out acts they would usually avoid. Their ambition blind them from certain information, and latch on to other information despite how truthful it really is. Macbeth shows this when the witches tell him