Macbeth Ambition
English Assignment – Term 3
Representations of ambition within Macbeth
Within Macbeth, there are numerous representations of human values and conflicts, including duty vs. desire, the effects of a guilty conscience on the human journey and the differences between genders, and the superiority of men within the play, and the modern era. The value foregrounded throughout this text is the representations of ambition within the play Macbeth, and we will be focusing on the protagonist of the story, ironically named Macbeth.
The effect of ambition can be a double-edged sword. Ambition can provide a person with desire, so that they can accomplish goals, and give them a kick-start towards them. On the other hand, however, ambition can transition into what’s known as vaulting ambition, which can be defined as pursuing your ambitions without taking into consideration the consequences that comes with it, and hypothetically ‘vaulting’ over the boundaries set. The protagonist within the play, Macbeth, exemplifies the act of ‘vaulting ambition’, and it is mentioned once within the play.
‘The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.’
Macbeth’s inner desires are reignited after the battle, when he arranges to meet with the three witches on the heath. The witches proclaim and prophesize that Macbeth will not only hold his position as Thane of Glamis, but also be crowned Thane of Cawdor, and eventually, the King of Scotland, though they do not say how. If Macbeth decides to seek his ambitions, that have now been reminded to him by the witches’ foresights, it would mean that he would have to eradicate the King of Scotland, through the act of regicide. This is what Macbeth was discoursing through his significant soliloquy; that the obstacles he must
Representations of ambition within Macbeth
Within Macbeth, there are numerous representations of human values and conflicts, including duty vs. desire, the effects of a guilty conscience on the human journey and the differences between genders, and the superiority of men within the play, and the modern era. The value foregrounded throughout this text is the representations of ambition within the play Macbeth, and we will be focusing on the protagonist of the story, ironically named Macbeth.
The effect of ambition can be a double-edged sword. Ambition can provide a person with desire, so that they can accomplish goals, and give them a kick-start towards them. On the other hand, however, ambition can transition into what’s known as vaulting ambition, which can be defined as pursuing your ambitions without taking into consideration the consequences that comes with it, and hypothetically ‘vaulting’ over the boundaries set. The protagonist within the play, Macbeth, exemplifies the act of ‘vaulting ambition’, and it is mentioned once within the play.
‘The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires, let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.’
Macbeth’s inner desires are reignited after the battle, when he arranges to meet with the three witches on the heath. The witches proclaim and prophesize that Macbeth will not only hold his position as Thane of Glamis, but also be crowned Thane of Cawdor, and eventually, the King of Scotland, though they do not say how. If Macbeth decides to seek his ambitions, that have now been reminded to him by the witches’ foresights, it would mean that he would have to eradicate the King of Scotland, through the act of regicide. This is what Macbeth was discoursing through his significant soliloquy; that the obstacles he must