Shakespeare's Ambition In Macbeth

Words: 498
Pages: 2

Ambition; a strong desire to do or to achieve something. Everyone has an ambition in life. Some people choose to use it as a positive or a negative outcome in life. It affects an individual in the long run whether they choose to use it as a positive or negative outcome. A good example of a negative outcome is Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Macbeth, the lead character in the play, let his ambition of becoming the king of Scotland get the best of him and take over his life to the point of murder.

The desire to become king was huge. Macbeth did not think of it himself, though. His wife, Lady Macbeth built up his ego and thought he deserved it. With that, she convinced him to kill the present king, King Duncan. “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘sleep no more!’. Macbeth does murder sleep”. This quote is stating that Macbeth hears his conscience coming through but decides to kill the king in his sleep anyway. Otherwise, his ambition to become king, and his wife's’ nagging got the best of him and he committed murder.

To think killing the king was not enough, Macbeth decided to murder his best friend, Banquo, because he thought Banquo would suspect Macbeth of murdering the king. “It is concluded. Banquo, thy soul is flight, if it find heaven, must find it out tonight.” Macbeth is stating that if Banquo’s soul were to ever find heaven,
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He wanted to become king. He wanted to be in power. But his ambition quickly became evil when he thought the only way to do so was to kill his closest allies. Ambition means a strong desire to do or to achieve something, and for Macbeth it was to become king. He decided to take the negative route and it changed his life forever. Having ambition and drive to achieve something is great. But taking the negative path to do so is not right. The impact of ambition is huge among individuals. It impacts everyone, not just you. But taking the positive way out it greatly the