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Grade 9 Essay AQA GCSE English Literature Macbeth essay on ambition
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TJNOTESMacbeth essay on ambition In Macbeth
Shakespeare presents ambition as the tragic flaw that causes Macbeth’s
downfall. In the extract, Lady Macbeth questions Macbeth’s lack of ambition
and she resolves to persuade him to seize the throne. Later, Shakespeare
shows how Macbeth’s ambition is encouraged by the Witches’ prophecies
and by his own desire for power as we see him transformed from a loyal
subject, to a murderous tyrant, to a defeated usurper. Performed before
King James VI and I in 1606, the play suggests, presumably to the
satisfaction of the king, that ambitious rebels against divinely appointed
kings should expect gruesome punishment.
In Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy, Shakespeare presents ambition as something
that Macbeth lacks, suggesting that Lady Macbeth aims to manipulate
Macbeth to take action. Alone, Lady Macbeth speaks her true thoughts
aloud, fearing that Macbeth is “too full o’th’milk of human kindness to catch
the nearest way” to the throne (1.5.16-17). The milk symbolism is an insult,
suggesting that Lady Macbeth feels that her husband is too feminine.
Ambition, here, is clearly linked to ideas about masculinity and the original
audience may well have been shocked to see a female character
transgressing traditional stereotypes of female behaviour. Lady Macbeth
then argues that ambition requires “illness”, in order to bear fruit (1.5.19).
She appears to believe that masculine cruelty is necessary to be great and,
indeed, later calls on supernatural power to “unsex” (1.5.40) her and make
her cruel. This is perhaps an echo of Machiavelli’s notorious advice to
princes that vice should be used in order to get and retain power. Lady
Macbeth concludes by resolving to give Macbeth her qualities through the
power of her rhetoric: “I may pour my spirits in thine ear.” (1.5.25) The
metaphor presents persuasion as a fluid, filling Macbeth’s head with
something unnatural and deadly.
Although Lady Macbeth dismisses Macbeth’s lack of ambition, Shakespeare
presents ambition as an important motivation for Macbeth. Soon after
meeting the Witches, Banquo notices that Macbeth is “rapt” (1.3.55 and
1.3.141). Macbeth seems to be already imagining his royal future. Later,
when Duncan proclaims Malcom as his heir, Macbeth reveals his “black and
deep desires” (1.4.51). Whispering to himself, he uses imagery of darkness
to emphasise how disturbing his ambition is and to reveal his plan to
“overleap” (1.4.48-49) Malcolm. This access to Macbeth’s thoughts sets up a
dramatically ironic scene where Macbeth simultaneously proclaims his
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