Title William Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Macbeth is about ambition, and reveals that even though ambition can lead to success it can just as easily lead to failure. Shakespeare uses his character Lady Macbeth to demonstrate ambition leading to success, and also ambition leading to failure. At the beginning of the play she is ambitious and quickly becomes queen. However, as the play progresses that same ambition that made her queen transforms into guilt and drives her towards failure. In Macbeth Lady Macbeth’s ambition is the sole cause of her success. However, once she meets her goal the guilt that replaces her ambition leads to her downfall.
Initially, Lady Macbeth is presented as a strong willed and ambitious character. The moment she …show more content…
Without her questioning Macbeth’s manhood and spurring him on to kill their king, they would never rise to power. Before the murder Macbeth is having second thoughts and says to himself “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent…”(I.VII.25-24). Lady Macbeth, however, spurs his intent herself by saying “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more than a man.”(I.VII.54-56) Without her immense ambition Macbeth would never have gone through with it; her ambition guided the act that would make her queen.
It was also Lady Macbeth’s ambition and strength of will that completed the act when her husband’s own will had been extinguished by guilt. After the murder Macbeth is overwhelmed with guilt and refuses to return the daggers to the scene of the murder to frame the guards. His wife responds by saying “My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”(II.II.82-83) Lady Macbeth tells her husband that she shares equally in his guilt but she is going to do what is necessary for them to rise to power regardless. This scene lends itself well to forming Lady Macbeth’s strong willed …show more content…
When Lady Macbeth first decides she wants to commit murder she says “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the darkest smokes of hell…”(I.V.53-54) She is asking to be encompassed in darkness or evil, which stands to contrast her behaviour after the murder. When she is observed by the doctor and a gentlewoman to be sleepwalking they notice she carries a candle with her even though she is asleep. The lady’s attendant tells the doctor that “she has light by her continually; ‘tis her command.”(V.I.20-21) Now, after the murder, Lady Macbeth makes a great effort to remain in the light, or stay out of the darkness even when she is asleep. This represents her transition from wanting to do evil to achieve her goals to regretting what she has done and her attempt to drown out the
Initially, Lady Macbeth is presented as a strong willed and ambitious character. The moment she …show more content…
Without her questioning Macbeth’s manhood and spurring him on to kill their king, they would never rise to power. Before the murder Macbeth is having second thoughts and says to himself “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent…”(I.VII.25-24). Lady Macbeth, however, spurs his intent herself by saying “When you durst do it, then you were a man; and, to be more than what you were, you would be so much more than a man.”(I.VII.54-56) Without her immense ambition Macbeth would never have gone through with it; her ambition guided the act that would make her queen.
It was also Lady Macbeth’s ambition and strength of will that completed the act when her husband’s own will had been extinguished by guilt. After the murder Macbeth is overwhelmed with guilt and refuses to return the daggers to the scene of the murder to frame the guards. His wife responds by saying “My hands are of your colour, but I shame to wear a heart so white.”(II.II.82-83) Lady Macbeth tells her husband that she shares equally in his guilt but she is going to do what is necessary for them to rise to power regardless. This scene lends itself well to forming Lady Macbeth’s strong willed …show more content…
When Lady Macbeth first decides she wants to commit murder she says “Come, thick night, and pall thee in the darkest smokes of hell…”(I.V.53-54) She is asking to be encompassed in darkness or evil, which stands to contrast her behaviour after the murder. When she is observed by the doctor and a gentlewoman to be sleepwalking they notice she carries a candle with her even though she is asleep. The lady’s attendant tells the doctor that “she has light by her continually; ‘tis her command.”(V.I.20-21) Now, after the murder, Lady Macbeth makes a great effort to remain in the light, or stay out of the darkness even when she is asleep. This represents her transition from wanting to do evil to achieve her goals to regretting what she has done and her attempt to drown out the