Ambition in Shakespeare's Macbeth Essay Example

In Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’, ambition is the main force that drives Macbeth throughout the play. It motivates him to become King but is the cause of his inevitable downfall, it is his hamartia. Ambition takes Macbeth to higher social standing but destroys his virtuous morals and eventually his sanity too. Shakespeare explores this idea of disruption of hierarchy and how it can have widespread negative consequences. 

At the beginning of the play, the fire of Macbeth’s ambition and desire for power is ignited by the ‘weird sisters’ and their prophecy. ‘All hail Macbeth, Thane of Cawdor. All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king after.’ The phrase ‘all hail’ has very noble connotations and the repetition of these words helps to imbed the idea of royalty in Macbeths mind.  These lines here cause Macbeth to have such vigorous ambition and drive him into committing the atrocities that allow him to be crowned king. However, this ambition leads to his loss of sanity and ultimately his death. Francis Bacon’s quote on ambition goes hand in hand with Macbeth’s actions here. ‘men will look at things anew, with an evil eye’. Before the witches’ prophecy, Macbeth was loyal to King Duncan but now, he has the ambition to become king he is willing to kill Duncan for the throne. Ambition is essentially what motivates Macbeth throughout the play and through presenting ambition as Macbeth’s hamartia Shakespeare demonstrates the inevitability of Macbeht’s downfall. 

Although the seed of ambition was planted by the witches, Macbeth is driven to act on this by Lady Macbeth. Who is, in my opinion, as ambitious for power as Macbeth himself but far more ruthless. In act 1 Lady Macbeth says that he is ‘not without ambition but without the willingness to attend it’ She manipulates Macbeth into killing Duncan by mocking his manhood and saying that he is too compassionate to seize the throne ‘when thou durst do it, you were a man’ ‘thou is too full o’ the milk of human kindness.’ Lady Macbeth insults Macbeth in ways that hurt his pride by referring to him with feminine traits. She encourages him into putting aside his conscience and kill Duncan. This relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth wasn’t traditional and would’ve shocked a Jacobean audience. At the time the man would’ve usually had the power in the relationship and was expected to be the ambitious one. 

Throughout the rest of the play, the audience can see ambition causing Macbeth to slowly lose his sanity and his righteous morals. When he kills King Duncan it deeply goes against his conscience and he feels crushing guilt. However, later in the play, he loses all sense of his previous morality as he starts killing innocent people, like Lady Macduff and her children. ‘Poor bird thou’dst never fear the net’. This is said by Lady Macduff referring to her son. Throughout this scene, she compares him to a bird and is also called an egg by the murderer. The bird symbolises a fragile, harmless creature and an egg also has connotations of fragility. The fact that Macbeth ordered the death of one so innocent and harmless highlights how far he has fallen morally from his previous righteous self. 

In Jacobean times, the people believed that the King was God’s representative on earth and was the closest thing to a deity. Therefore, regicide was believed to be the worst sin, it disrupted the natural hierarchy that was believed in at the time. Shakespeare explores the theme of disordering of hierarchy when Macbeth kills King Duncan. ‘Wherefore could I not pronounce Amen I had the most need of blessing and Amen stuck in my throat’. Macbeth says this after killing Duncan and committing the worst sin and distorting natural order. He finds that he cannot say the holy word amen and fears that he is damned. However, Macbeth’s immoral actions and ‘vaulting ambition’ have not only caused him internal conflict but have more widespread effects. ‘A falcon tow’ringin her pride of place was by a mousing owl hawked at and killed.’ Shakespeare includes this as a metaphor for Macbeth killing Duncan to show how natural hierarchy has been disrupted. Shakespeare also uses themes of hell and evil when referring to Macbeth. In Act 2 scene 3 the porter compared Macbeth’s castle in an extended metaphor, he calls himself the ‘porter of hell gate’. This provides comic relief for the audience, but Shakespeare is also using dramatic irony here. The comparison of Inverness Castle parallels with the bloody murder that just took place. In my opinion, Shakespeare explores these ideas throughout the play to highlight how drastic the consequences of Macbeth’s ambition were. 

Ambition is ultimately the cause of Macbeth’s downfall, it transforms him from a virtuous and honourable noble into an unholy tyrant, driven into madness by his guilt. As well as Macbeth’s internal struggle Shakespeare suggests that ‘vaulting’ ambition can have greater negative consequences on the world around and to quote Francis Bacon can cause the ‘decay of an entire age’.