Examples Of Ambition In Macbeth

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Ambition is a strong desire to achieve something that will require extreme diligence. Such trait is revealed through William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. William Shakespeare, the author of Macbeth, writes this tragic play patronage to King James who was also the King of England during this time. He did such by portraying his ancestor Banquo as a hero. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth’s salient traits of pretension, obsession, and culpability to portray the theme that ambition and the pursuit of power causes downfall. Lady Macbeth’s pretension is revealed firstly through the letter her husband Macbeth sends her. Macbeth’s letter that he sends to Lady Macbeth bears the news of each witches’ prophecies for him. “Thy letters have transported me beyond this ignorant present, and I feel now the future in this instant” (I. vi. 64-66.) What Lady Macbeth is saying is that being informed of these prophecies starts causing her to vividly daydream of their opulent future. Because this daydream of becoming the all-powerful wife to a King is now lucid to her, the ambition kindles within her. Therefore, Lady Macbeth begins to crave the title, and she will let nothing stand in her way of the vivid dream she eagerly longs for. …show more content…
As she calls unto them, she requests that she is made manly to begin King Duncan’s execution. “Come, you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top-full of direst cruelty. Make thick my blood…” (I. v. 47-51.) By enunciating how badly she longs for this masculinity, her obsession is made evident. The very thought of her ruling as Queen alongside Macbeth plants treacherous malice in her mind. Consequently, this drive motivates Lady Macbeth so much, that she finally meets guilt head

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