Starting with this speech, explore how Shakespeare presents ambition
in Macbeth. Write about:
• how Shakespeare presents ambition in this speech
• how Shakespeare presents ambition in the play as a whole.
There are good and bad aspects of ambition:
1- Fatal flaw
2- leadership
3- Greed
Macbeth’s ambition or the hand of fate?
Quote 1: “What thou art promis’d; yet do I fear thy nature”
Lady Macbeth is more ambitious for her husband.
She believes that he deserves more power but he is too nice for his
own good.
Macbeth does have power but doesn’t posses the type of nature
required to take steps to gain the throne.
He wants to do thing like a good man: he doesn’t want to cheat.
The conjunction “Yet” is a representation of the obstacle that will
come in the way.
Context = Shakespeare links having ambition with evil and
committing evil deeds. This can link to King James as he despised
the supernatural and wrote a book called demonology.
Quote 2: “I have no spur”
Point = Macbeth is a good man who goes wrong
Point= He is driven by a need for power which sets him on a path
for his own destruction – wife shares same fatal flaw.
Analysis = Macbeth has been thinking about murdering Duncan.
He reaches the conclusion that the only thing motivating him is
his “spur”.
Context = the gunpowder plot was a scheme against the King and
it failed. Macbeth thinking about murdering King Duncan makes
the audience hate Macbeth as he is plotting against his own King.
Quote 3: “For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind;”
Macbeth's ambition he becomes greedy and selfish.
He cannot accept that Banquo's descendants will become kings
after him and sets out to alter the prediction by having Banquo and
Fleance murdered.
He is even unprepared to share power with his wife as he puts her
to one side, making secretive decisions and not even caring when
she dies.
His greed means that he wishes to keep power for himself and his
own family. So he concludes that the only way forward is to try to
alter the prediction by murdering Banquo and Fleance.
Context =
Quote 4: “For them, the gracious Duncan have I murdered,”
His ambition overwhelmed him and took control of him that it
drove him to murder his own King (Duncan) .
Point=
Analysis -
Context =
At the time the play was set, people believed in heaven and hell.
If someone went against God’s will, they would be damned
(condemned) in the afterlife and punished in hell for all eternity.
This was often seen as more frightening than allowing harm to happen
to you while you were alive.
Once Macbeth has damned (condemned) himself by killing King
Duncan, nothing he can do will save his mortal soul.
He might as well pursue all his ambitions and kill anyone who gets in
his way because his punishment by God has already been decided!
That ambition causes Macbeth's downfall.
Macbeth’s ambition changes his life from good to horrific and
causes his death.
It is caused by the outside force of the witches’ prophecies.
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth make huge errors in judgement as they
allow their greedy desire for power to overtake them.
The audience can see their bad choices building up throughout the
play, and they know that it cannot end well for either character.
Therefore, the tragic mood of the play starts as soon as Macbeth
meets the witches in Act 1 and gets worse until he eventually dies in
Act 5.
