Ambition Flashcards
Quest for power - Ambition
M gains the title of thane of cawdor as a reward for his bravery/his exploits against the Norweigians (“doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe”)
D - “make thee full of growing” 1.4
Then M gets the prophecy that he “shalt be king hereafter”, planting the seed of malicious ambition in his mind. He quickly comes to terms that to achieve his goals he will have to commit regicide.
Lady Macbeth & Macbeth - Ambition
LM recognises that M “art not without ambition” but without “the illness that should attend it” - M’s conscience is standing in his way, though his ambition is still strong - is what keeps the idea of regicide in his head.
1.7”vaulting ambition, which o’er leaps itself” - the only thing driving him is his high levels of ambition for the future.
LM attacks M’s masculinity (“be so much more the man”) to coerce/manipulate him into doing it - spurring his ambition by making him feel like he needs to prove something even to his own wife
- ties ambition to masuclinity, but it is a value expressly shown in LM when she muses on M being weak (as he has remorse) and that she will have to manipulate him to enact her desires - becoming queen
Chaos & doubts - Ambition
Once M has realised his ambition and secured the throne, chaos begins to reign supreme. B fears that M “played’st most foully for’t”
M abuses his power to continue his reign - leading to B’s murder due to his “royalty in nature”. B’s got a better moral conscience and has an inherently good nature, leading to his murder in 3.3.
Also leads to MD’s family being killed as M is trying desperately to consolidate his power and will kill innocents to do this as he wants to live out his ambitions.
Consequences for Scotland - Ambition
This misplaced ambition leads to the downfall of Scotland “bleed, poor country” “was feverous and did shake”
MD’s ambition restores order in scotland, again creating a contrast between ambition born of evil and ambition to do better for the wellbeing of other people (and in this case the country)
Results - Ambition
M’s ambition ultimately leads to his untimely death “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury”
Same with LM - took her own life by “self and violent hands”
“dead butcher and his fiend-like queen”
In the end, since their ambition was not pure, they only succeeded in destroying themselves as order was restored in Scotand. Shows how if your ambitions are misplaced and born of ill intent they will end in destruction and will end up “signifying nothing”
In the short term, it only succeeded in making M powerful but hated, whereas it seemed to lead to a quick deterioration in LM’s mental health.
