Macbeth's Ambition example essay topic

Shelly MoyA P LIT 4th hour Shakespeare draws an amazing psychological portrait of a man who became a villain by means of ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil. "Macbeth" is a play composed of the disintegration of a noble man's world. The play begins by offering the audience Macbeth, a war hero, with a high regard from Duncan, the king of Scotland. By the end of the play Macbeth transforms into a universally despised man without a place in the social community. Shakespeare draws an amazing face of a man made to be a villain by ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil. Macbeth, unhappy and unsatisfied with his social position, caused his feelings to snowball into the ambition that led him to the murder of Duncan.

"I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which O'er leaps itself And falls on th " other" (Act 1 sc. 7 pg 41) By using an aside, Shakespeare allows Macbeth to reveal his ambitions. And uses Macbeth's ambition to create irony, in that his ambition was what brought him to power, yet it also leads him to his tragic downfall. Ambition is what allowed Macbeth to become more powerful, and helps him to overcome obstacles and come closer to his final goals. It is this ambition that is the direct cause of the tragic incident of Duncan's death. The encounter with the three witches summons Macbeth's innermost imaginative desires, eventually pointing him in the direction of Duncan's murder.

"Art thou not fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? Or art thou butA dagger of the mind, a false creation Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?" (Act 2 sc. 1 pg 53) Here Macbeth's imagination precedes his rational thought, he is stolen in the grip of his fantastical imagination. It is as if the dagger is actually pulling him towards his desires to murder Duncan, rather than being persuaded by an actual inner passion for that motive.

Shakespeare uses this scene to demonstrate to the audience that Macbeth's conscious act of knowing that his desires are immoral and still acting upon them proves him quite the villain. This symbolism brings the audience to savor the play's hidden meanings and also allows for leeway in the interpretation of the plot. Macbeth's inability to balance the forces of good and evil cause him to reach an insecure state of mind, causing him to make many malicious decisions. "But let the fame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer, Ere we eat our meal in fear and sleep In the affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. Better be with dead, Whom we gain our peace have sent to peace, Then on the torture of the mind to lie, In restless ecstasy " In this scene of the play Shakespeare's audience finds that Macbeth is determined to set his imbalance straight, he is on the road seeking to obtain what he sets out to acquire with his first act of evil. This eventually leads to the murders of Banque and Flea nce.

Dramatic Irony assists in the interests of the audience as it keeps them guessing as to which side of Macbeth's imbalance will prevail. It can also be detected that in this quote a hint of foreshadowing exists, as Macbeth confesses: "Better be with dead", leaving the audience to wonder if Macbeth can truly handle what he has brought upon himself. As Macbeth makes a plea for the elimination of his scruples he dramatically presents the audience with the theme: "Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill" (Act 3 sc. 3 pg 95) As the plot continues to unfold, Macbeth continues to murder to attain peace of mind, and his villainous mask becomes more than skin deep. And so the portrait of Macbeth is drawn by Shakespeare as a villain brought to life by ambition, desire and an imbalance of good and evil. At the end of the play Macbeth is driven so deep into his own evil that he takes his life, and so provides the audience with another theme: you are surrounded by what you create.