Theme Of Ambition And Violence In Macbeth

Ambition and violence are a recurring theme throughout the entirety of the play. Violence is shown throughout through various things. This likely because of the time period that Macbeth is set in where being a warrior made you honored by many people. In the story Macbeth is a warrior revered throughout Scotland. Even though he has a reputation like his Macbeth has a major flaw which ultimately leads to his downfall at the end of the play. The character trait downfall that Macbeth suffers from is his ambition for more power. Macbeth’s wife has an ambition for power also and might even have a bigger thirst for it than her husband. She already wanted Macbeth to kill the king when finding about and pushed for him to do it when he was unsure

When Macbeth rethinks killing Duncan he says “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself and falls on the other” (25-28). Macbeth has no reason to kill Duncan and admits that Duncan is a good king and that he wants to kill him just to have the power for himself. When Malcom finds Duncan’s body he says this in his rage “Gainst nature still! Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up thine own lives’ means! Then tis most like the sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth” (39-42). Ross is right about one thing: ambition is to blame for Duncan's murder. He is wrong about the most important part, though. Here, he accuses Duncan's kids of killing their father when Macbeth is the one he should be accusing and not Duncan’s children. Even though Lady Macbeth has ambition like her husband she fears Macbeth’s nature “Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be what thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; it is too full o' th' milk of human kindness to catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it” (15-20). After reading the letter from her husband which recounts the witches' prophesy, Lady Macbeth's thoughts immediately turn to murder. The problem with that is Macbeth has ambition, but he doesn’t have the nerve to see it through.