Progression In Macbeth's Ambition

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Macbeth’s character progression in Macbeth can be analyzed using the core theme of ambition, pride, and power. All three sub-categories require intense determination, reverence, and confidence. When exposed to too much of any of these, an individual often becomes corrupt, arrogant, or malicious. Shakespeare crafts this play strategically, enlisting small but mighty vocabulary, figurative speech, and sentence structure. This allows readers and audience members to understand the significant details within, recognize advancements in character personality, and highlight the core theme throughout the play. Shakespeare enlists both his writing strategy, and the core theme, through the character of “Brave” Macbeth. Macbeth masterfully exemplifies …show more content…

In the short span of Act one to Act four, Macbeth becomes almost unrecognizable. He begins to suffer from over-ambition, tainting his reputation in the process, “This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues, was once thought honest. You have loved him well. He hath not touched you yet. I am young, but something You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb T' appease an angry god” (Act 4. Scene 3. Lines 13-17). So strong is the hatred for Macbeth that people can’t even stand to utter his name, and will use an assortment of pronouns instead. Before, Macbeth was known as “Brave, ” but now he is referred to as a “tyrant” and an “angry god.” This illustrates a massive shift in Macbeth’s temperament since the beginning of the play. The Witches, who prophesied that Macbeth would be King, sparked an eternal thirst in him for royal status. Everything began to go downhill as Macbeth was riddled with greed for more and more power. Not stopping at any costs to give him more control. Macbeth was “once thought honest,” but with greed for power, his whole disposition changed into a wrathful, insecure