Examples Of Greed In Macbeth

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the classic story of greed; the literary representation of a conflict we all face in our everyday lives. This can often be seen in a positive or negative way. In both ways, there will be change. Change often occurs first within oneself. After this change occurs, it then changes everything around their life. We all want things that other people have, but how far will we go to get them? Those desires turn to ambition that is all too often characterized by selfishness. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were filled with tons of selfish ambition. The actions they took reflected their true motives of pure greed. Their envy drove them to take extreme measures to get what they wanted. Macbeth, though, proves to have been

After murdering King Duncan he realizes that he is just one step closer to the crown. As a result, he has the desire to kill anyone who stands in his way of him getting the throne. Banquo stands in his way as he knows that King Duncan needed to killed. In this case, Macbeth hires murderers to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. He tells the murderers, “To leave no rubs nor botches in the work / Whose absence is no less material to me / Than is his father’s, must embrace the fate of that dark hour” (3.2.153-156). Macbeth tells the murderers that he can’t afford to have any suspicions that it is him. Immediately, the murderers agree and killed Banquo, but Fleance escaped. When the murderers had came back with this news while Macbeth was at a ceremony, Macbeth was in doubt but was also reassured that Banquo was killed. When the murderers left, Macbeth sees a ghost that no one else sees. Moyal emphasizes in her book that “Reality is crucially involved in literature” (Moyal 134). To clarify, Macbeth is facing reality of the situation that he put himself into. After the crime was committed with the murderers, he is facing the reality of guilt. He knows he is now guilty of Banquo’s