Shakespeare's "Macbeth"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses that in writing "Macbeth," Shakespeare attempted not only to describe, but also to define the very essence of ambition. The paper asserts that, in the play, ambition is inextricably intertwined with conscience. The author presents specific examples and character exploration and concludes that the meaning of ambition in Shakespeare's time was much more negative than in today's society.

From the Paper:

"The second way in which conscience and ambition interact in Macbeth can be seen in Lady Macbeth, who is the most ambitious and Machiavellian character in the beginning and whom guilt seems to affect the most as the play progresses. She is not only restless and disturbed like Macbeth was after he had killed Duncan, but she actually goes mad and commits suicide, driven to utter despair and insanity by the thought of the innocents' blood on her hands. Evidence of this lies in her night-walking speech in the first scene of Act 5: "Out, damned spot, out, I say!.. The Thane of Fife had a wife. Where is she now? What, will these hands neer be clean?" In comparison to what she tells Macbeth, as encouragement in the murder of king Duncan (Act 1 Scene7: "I would, while it [the babe that milks me] was smiling in my face, / Have plucked my nipple from its boneless gums / And dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done"), we see that her conscience is much stronger. Thus, her ambition and the guilt that came with it awoke her conscience instead of destroying it."

More papers on Shakespeare's "Macbeth":

• Analytical Essay # 31801 : "Macbeth and Pieter"
• Analytical Essay # 33157 : "Macbeth"
• Essay # 84965 : "Magic and Macbeth"
• Essay # 73671 : "Piety in "Macbeth"

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