Ambition is something everyone has. Your ambitions strives and makes you achieve your goals. However, too much ambition can corrupt and destroy a person. Ambition is like a drug, small amounts can make you feel great, but too much can kill you. Shakespeare clearly portrays the negative effects of too much ambition throughout his play The Tragedy of Macbeth. He uses the main character, Macbeth, to show us how excessive amounts of ambition can lead someone to their doom. In the beginning of the play when Macbeth has just won a great battle, which later ended up giving him the title of the Thane of Cawdor, he meets with three witches that tell him a prophecy of his future. They tell him that he will be announced king in the near future. Later
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When the King Duncan has come to praise Macbeth’s good deeds in battle, Macbeth says to himself, “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step / On which I must fall down or else o’erleap, / For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires. / The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be / Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.” (1.4.48-53). Macbeth has dark thoughts about how he should kill and overcome anyone that lies in front of him as he takes the throne, and he says to the heavens that he does not want God to know his dark and terribles desires of murder. His murderous ambition is completely changing who he is. Later on, Macbeth says, “Upon the sightless couriers of the air, / Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, / That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / And falls on th’ other --” (1.7.23-28). Macbeth openly admits that Duncan is a very good king, and the only reason he wants to kill him is because of his own ambition. Macbeth has become so corrupt that he himself knows that he wants to kill someone just because it will make him king. Even though the king has been very generous with Macbeth by offering him the title of Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth still wants to kill …show more content…
/ Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time, / And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! / Lifeś but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” (5.4.17-28). Macbeth has met his demise. His wife has just died because she went crazy from her murderous ambition. Macbeth says that his and his wife’s ambition were both a waste of time because she is dead and he will be
When the King Duncan has come to praise Macbeth’s good deeds in battle, Macbeth says to himself, “The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step / On which I must fall down or else o’erleap, / For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; / Let not light see my black and deep desires. / The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be / Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.” (1.4.48-53). Macbeth has dark thoughts about how he should kill and overcome anyone that lies in front of him as he takes the throne, and he says to the heavens that he does not want God to know his dark and terribles desires of murder. His murderous ambition is completely changing who he is. Later on, Macbeth says, “Upon the sightless couriers of the air, / Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, / That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself / And falls on th’ other --” (1.7.23-28). Macbeth openly admits that Duncan is a very good king, and the only reason he wants to kill him is because of his own ambition. Macbeth has become so corrupt that he himself knows that he wants to kill someone just because it will make him king. Even though the king has been very generous with Macbeth by offering him the title of Thane of Cawdor, Macbeth still wants to kill …show more content…
/ Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Creeps in this petty pace from day to day / To the last syllable of recorded time, / And all our yesterdays have lighted fools / The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! / Lifeś but a walking shadow, a poor player / That struts and frets his hour upon the stage / And then is heard no more. It is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” (5.4.17-28). Macbeth has met his demise. His wife has just died because she went crazy from her murderous ambition. Macbeth says that his and his wife’s ambition were both a waste of time because she is dead and he will be