Ambitions are the desires of humans that demands to be achieved or done. Being too ambitious can sometimes lead to the opposite of our aims. People in the past had a thought that excess in ambition would only lead to corruption. However, people nowadays believe that the more ambitious you are the greater you will achieve or become. Is it true, will excess in ambition lead to downfall or not? In ‘Macbeth', one of the main characters is Macbeth; he was a Scottish general and Thane of Glamis. He is an ambitious person lead by his desires and his wicked thoughts. He was influenced by someone closely related to him to achieve his desires. Will this lead to his downfall? Richard Nixon is the 37 president of the United States. He is remembered for his achievement in foreign policy. Richard Nixon had agreed for power and was ambitious to maintain his power as long as he could. Will his greed cost him his position? The following essay will examine some of the similarities and differences between Macbeth and Richard Nixon regards to their ambition, influence and downfall.
In Shakespeare's Macbeth the main character Macbeth goes to battle against his country's enemy, three witches appear who tell him that he will soon become Thane of Cawdor and then one day king of Scotland. His best friend Banquo is told from the witches as well that his sons will be king one day after Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth gets word of this she becomes manipulative and greedy, she can’t wait to be in power, she comes up with a plan to kill king Duncan. Macbeth doesn’t agree with this plan so Lady Macbeth manipulates him into killing King Duncan. After Macbeth kills Duncan he becomes king and sets out to kill Banquo and his son Fleance so they, he kills Banquo but Fleance escapes. Macbeth becomes hated by his people and ends up fighting
Macbeth was an honorable and loyal soldier to King Duncan. As he stumbled upon the three witches and hearing their predictions. He began to question his future when King Duncan had given a higher rank to his son Malcolm. As if Malcolm was to become king Macbeth’s second prophecy of him becoming king wouldn’t come true or at least it would take a longer time for him to be king. His ambitions toward the crown grew and it slowly but surely began to corrupt his mind. Along with the help of his wife Lady Macbeth, who encouraged and convinced him to go through the plan of killing Duncan, his mind and soul slowly turned insane.
Greed for power leads corrupt leaders to pursue power through ruthless and violent ways, putting their countries in an unstable state.
Greed for power has always been evil and even made a saint turn into a demon. As the quote goes “All power tends to corrupt and an absolute power corrupts absolutely” (unquote), which is true not only in the fictitious stories but also in real life and Shakespeare, th9e greatest writer ever known, has always been in habit of making fictitious character come alive and Macbeth is no exception to the rule. The character of Macbeth has two sides, one which is wholesome while other been dubious. He symbolized great ambition but went overboard and in the process not only became corrupt but also became a killer. Macbeth reflects great strength but within he has his own weakness and thus good over took evil resulting in its downfall and finally his own death. His wife, Lady Macbeth, was the most influential person as far as Macbeth was concerned and any decision of his would have trademark of his wife, Lady Macbeth. The greed of Macbeth for more power led him to commit monstrous acts however
Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is a tragic story about man’s faults. While fictional, Macbeth shows many true aspects of man, such as pride and corruption. Pride is shown in almost every act of Macbeth. It shows that even men whom are considered the best, most loyal men, can fall folly to the pride of life. Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show how pride is destructive, sin corrupts the mind, and that not all counsel should be taken.
This shows macbeth's ambition because he is willing to kill kids and a whole family just so he can stay king. Macbeth is a tragic hero because he meet that first requirement which is Hamartia This shows the that Macbeth is very desperate to stay king. By now, Macbeth has changed a lot. He used to be very kind, and had a lot of ambition for the right reasons. But Lady Macbeth has changed him, when he agreed to kill
Macbeth, throughout the play, is presented in an eminent position in society with major flaws, and, as such, fulfills the basic requirements of a tragic hero. Shakespeare introduces him as a brave general, an intelligent resolute man of action whose major flaw of ambition for power leads him to his last battle of death. Because Macbeth was such a strong character in the opening of the play, every perfect hero, has a dark side. The Thane of Cawdor, who later becomes King, is categorized in three sections: bravery, ambition and guilt- and to many, Macbeth, is a true tragic hero.
In the play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, many of the main characters can be classified as tragic heroes. A tragic hero can be labeled as a character with a fatal flaw which eventually leads to their downfall. However, I believe that the main character, Macbeth, is overall the biggest tragic hero within the play. Macbeth's selfish ambition, low self-esteem, and general obsession with more power all contributed to his grand title of being a tragic hero.
Macbeth’s greatest weakness is his ambition, but it is also his greatest strength. Despite his ambition being one of his major weaknesses, it is not his sole weakness he exhibits that contributes to his inevitable death. At the beginning of William Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ the protagonist Macbeth is described as ‘brave’, ‘noble’ and ‘honourable’, however Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeths desire for power consumes them. Macbeth’s ambition overrides his conscience and transformed his greatest strength into his greatest weakness. Macbeth’s inability to resist temptations that led him to be greedy for power, Macbeth’s easily manipulative nature which allowed his mind to be swayed, Macbeth having no self control and his excessive pride was what allowed him to renew his previously honourable and celebrated title into one of an evil ‘tyrant’.
William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, the main character; Macbeth, is seen as an evil character. The play is based off of Macbeth’s decisions and his actions to become King. In the beginning Macbeth starts out as a hero in Scotland’s war with Ireland and towards the end he is transformed into a murderer. Macbeth is not wholly evil because of is heroism in the war, his love for Scotland, and because he didn’t want to kill King Duncan initially. Macbeth was brain washed by his wife and tricked into killing the King.
Tragedy of Macbeth is a story written by William Shakespeare about a man who is power hungry to become king. This story is called a tragedy, a tragedy is a type of story that doesn 't have a happy ending. A tragedy will end up with the protagonist dieing or making a great sacrifice. Shakespeare has made many tragedies such a Romeo and Juliet for example. In every Tragedy there must be a tragic hero and in this story it shows that Macbeth is the tragic hero, is a round character, and also a very dynamic character.
Macbeth is a tragic hero because he redeemed a small measure of his nobility. He redeemed himself by fighting until the end of his life. He understood his fate and still fought. Macbeth also experiences guilt after everything that he has done. That shows he still has a conscious and has some good left over in him. “ Methought, I heard a voice cry, 'Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep '.” (Act II, sc ii, Lines 45-47). Macbeth is extremely paranoid and guilty. He doesn’t believe he will be able to sleep after committing this
In conclusion, although some believe that Macbeth is aware of what he is doing for himself Macbeth is a tragic hero. In Shakespeare 's Macbeth he holds high praise of being Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, knows of his flaw and after putting himself in a situation he fought to the end of his own death. By Aristotle 's characteristics guide of a tragic hero and how Macbeth responses to his flaw is what makes Macbeth a tragic hero instead of an
Macbeth is Foul, Macbeth is Fair: An Analysis of Macbeth as a Tragic Shakespearean Hero