A Brief Look at Feminism in Shakespeare's "Macbeth"
The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare is worthy of critical study by reason of inspecting essential human qualities that are still significant to common people at different times and places of the world despite huge contextual differences. Shakespeare’s works have been worthy of examination because they give us insight into the human condition rather then living a life under a religious perspective. Shakespeare suggests that people have the ability to decide their own fate, yet the decisions affect the individual based on the moral goodness of a decision, and that a person is rewarded or admonished for their decisions. In Macbeth we explore the themes of the corrupting force of unchecked ambition and the contrast between kingship and tyranny but in the end it’s not only the issues that are reviewed but the language, language techniques and the readers understanding of the context which makes Macbeth worth of critical study. In Macbeth, ambition is presented as a dangerous quality. The corrupting force of unchecked ambition takes control of Macbeth as demonstrated by his murderous progression. For millennia, Ambition has been a guiding force of the psychology of humankind the play is worthwhile to study as it describes the morality of an individual when one is driven to the eventual fate of desired power through unchecked ambition. During the previous 100 years before the play the English public witnessed the English crown being brutally fought over, because of this the concept of ambition in Macbeth would have been no stranger to his audience. The theme of ambition is brilliantly portrayed by using the metaphor "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, and falls on th'other...." this explains how he has no true motive to commit murder only ‘ambition’ and that those who succumb to the desire for power are only hurrying themselves towards disaster. The kernel of ambition is placed in Macbeth by the