Ambition

Key idea 1

Shakespeare demonstrates that ambition is good when it is in service to the rightful king

Key idea 2

Ambition is corrupted when it goes against the rightful king / Great Chain of Being

Key idea 3

Unchecked ambition leads to devastating consequences on the individual and the kingdom

Macbeth is willing to be ambitious and brave for the king, especially in battle

"His brandished steel, which smoked with bloody execution" 1.2

Macbeth's ambition in service of the king is brave and loyal

"Like valour's minion"

"Brave Macbeth"

- Captain 1.2

Ambitious acts for the king benefits Macbeth

"What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won" Duncan 1.2

Macbeth's ambition against the king is presented as evil

"Stars, hide your fires: let not light see my black and deep desires" Macbeth 1.4

Macbeth 's unchecked ambition risks his own destruction or even damnation

"I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself and falls on th'other"

- Macbeth 1.7

Macbeth's uncontrolled ambition would lead to his downfall

"Here's a farmer who hanged himself on expectation of plenty" - Porter 2.3

A ruler driven by ambition brings suffering to a country

"It weeps, it bleeds, each new day a gash is added to her wounds" - Malcolm 4.3

Macbeth's ambition lead him to failure and self-sabotage

"Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown and put a barren sceptre in my grip" - Macbeth 3.1

Macbeth's ambition brought him fear and uncertainty rather than satisfaction

"to be thus is nothing but to be safely thus" - Macbeth 3.1

Macbeth's heretical ambition, led by poor judgement, tempts him into violence and destruction

"Is this a dagger which I see before me, the handle toward my hand? or art thou but a dagger of the mind, a false creation proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?"

- Macbeth 2.1

Macbeth's uncontrolled ambition has lead to him drastically and irreversibly giving himself guilt

"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, but rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine" Macbeth 2.2

Ambition against nature can lead to your life being ruined

"'gainst nature still! Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up thine own lives' means" Ross 2.4