Macbeth: the evil of ambition
...before long, an entirely different Macbeth is created. At any rate, in the beginning of the play it is evident that he is not naturally inclined to commit the evil deeds he later is guilty of committing. “All hail, Macbeth! Hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!/…Thane of Cawdor!/… that shalt be king hereafter!”(I, ii, 51); with these few lines, the beginning of the end of Macbeth has been initiated. The witches’ prophecies here have embedded in Macbeth the first seeds of the corrupting ambition that will inevitably destroy his life as well as the lives of all those around him. Now, the gradual decline of Macbeth into the obscurity of his ambition becomes more evident, and the audience is given many examples of his newly born evil. In act one, scene seven, Macbeth addresses the audience and says “Stars hide your fires;/ let not light see my black and deep desires”(I, ii, 57). This is undeniable proof of the evil effects brought on by ambition; Macbeth comes right out and confesses to the heavens of his dark intentions sparked by his ambition to rule. By now, the seed of ambition planted by the witches has grown and taken control of Macbeth to the point that he is apologizing for an evil he has not yet committed. Later in the act, we again see the evils of his aspirations as he expresses that the only thing still driving him to eradicate Duncan is his growing ambition for power. “I have no spur/ to prick the sides of my intent, but only/ vaulting ambition…”(I, ii, 25) is all Macbeth has to say about his only reason to continue with the murder of Duncan. With Duncan murdered, and Macbeth having attained the throne by unnatural means, he sets himself up for a series of gratuitous murders to preserve his throne. While having changed from the quest of power to the preservation of power, it is still the ambitions of Macbeth that cause him to enact the many wrongs of his reign. Had Macbeth not allowed his evil ambitions to go unimpeded and grow to an irrepressible amount, the many evils he committed would have never occurred. In addition to his ambitions, Lady Macbeth had equal, if not more severe, ambitions of her own. It can even be said that it was her ambitions that released those of Macbeth. Like Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is plagued with evil-rooted ambition. It is in her best interest that he becomes king, and she will do all that she can to see he achieves this end. It is her belief that Macbeth is “not without ambition, but without the illness that should attend it.” (I, v, 15). Unlike Macbeth however, Lady Macbeth realizes that her ambition will result in evil deeds, and she takes ostensibly required precautions to see she remains free of guilt. “Come, you spirits/ that tend on mortal thoughts…/ and fill me from crown to the toe top-full/ of direst cruelty.”(I, v, 47). With the assistance of the super natural, Lady Macbeth prepares herself for what she knows her ambition will lead her to do. The notion to kill Duncan, now fresh in her mind, was never mentioned in Macbeth’s letter, but because of her interminable ambition, she develops her own evil plots to prematurely ascend into royalty. It...