Examples Of Ambition In Macbeth

961 Words4 Pages

In the tragedy Macbeth by William Shakespeare. It's about a soldier named Macbeth who let his greed for power cause him to abandon all his morals. Which brings destruction to the kingdom he seeks to rule. Humans always struggle with the choice of doing what they know is right vs what they want to do. In this Shakespearean tragedy, Macbeth battles back and forth between the choice of doing what he knows is right against doing what he feels needs to be done to achieve his goal. For instance, In Macbeth, William Shakespeare shows the aspects of the good and bad of ambition and power. Some of the key aspects are greed and selfishness. Macbeth couldn't accept the fact that Banquo's descendants will become kings, Macbeth tries to do everything that he could to prevent that from happening. He even …show more content…

The text states “Macbeth’s actions illustrate contrasting examples of praiseworthy and censurable ambition. An example of virtuous ambition is when he fights valiantly and receives the title of Cawdor for his martial valor.” (Unhae Langis). This piece of text evidence shows it’s the best of virtues and the worst of virtues. By encouraging Macbeth to murder to achieve their goals. He fails to see how his ambition leads him to cross multiple moral lines that’ll lead to both his and his wife’s downfall. The text also states “When he kills Duncan asleep as a guest in his house, Macbeth’s ambition violates fundamental rules of conduct in a nation slipping into a brutal contest of power, clinging to a semblance of moral order.” (Unhae Langis). This also shows that Macbeth’s greed and ambition violated all his morals, and promises to the King and his kingdom. Macbeth violated all these rules just so that he could replace King Duncan on the

Open Document