Macbeth Ambition Essay

Ambition is complicated. On one hand, it is the fuel that prompts people

Gratifying Destruction: The Dualism of Ambition Ambition is a release from our own passivity. The drive to achieve that it instills within us delivers us from the wretchedness that is to be left wanting, and waiting. Innately, it is a life-giver; a breath of fresh air for us to breathe. Sometimes, however, it propels us to blindly siphon out the air resting in another’s lungs, our will to secure what we desire so strong that it hinders us from recognizing how others can become casualties in our pursuit.

One of the most significant parts of this is the idea that being an ambitious person allows you to grow your confidence. In the book Into the Wild, written by Jon Krakauer, Krakauer unpacks his relationship with his father. He comments on how his father instilled ambition in him from a young age and that ambition gifted him the ability to climb Devil's Thumb Mountain. He reveals how he almost didn’t make it to the top of the mountain, but he did because he set an ambitious goal for himself because he knew he could accomplish it, and this thinking allowed him to be more confident in himself (146-151). This goes to show how positive being ambitious can be in someone's life; you could literally climb a mountain!

Caroline Goveas Mrs. C. Custodio ENG 3U1 21 June 2023 Ambition: How the Greatest Motivator Can Lead to the Greatest Sacrifices Eric Maisel, a psychotherapist and an author, once said “Ambition is vital, but dangerous: it is a keen motive and a driving force, but over what edge can it drive the artist?” (Maisel). In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s great American novel, The Great Gatsby, Lauren Weisberger’s cult-classic novel The Devil Wears Prada, and Taylor Swift’s heart-wrenching song “You’re On Your Own, Kid”, a warped perception of ambition, causes divergence, sacrificing one’s true self.

The desire to make something perfect to one’s standards is what drives ambition. In Frankenstein, a book written by Mary Shelley in the Romantic era, the author demonstrates the benefits and risks of ambition through its characters. In this famous novel, Victor Frankenstein’s ambition often leads to success, but he needs to go the extra mile in order to achieve this. His ambitious personality can only be fulfilled by perfection. Just as in the poem “Ozymandias”, by Mary Shelley’s husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, explains that ambition may lead to success, but your success may not end the way it was supposed to.

“Be excellent, so that no one ignores. " This quote by Steve Martin explains the importance of ambition in our daily lives. Ambition, the driving point of success in life despite the obstacles one encounters. However, it causes stress to people along with the success it brings, forcing people to believe the impossibility of accomplishing their dreams, however if they try, they will surprise themselves and others. An example of one who was ambitious and achieved his goal was Bill Gates.

This theme of ambition resonates with readers because it is a universal human experience. We all have dreams and goals that we strive for, but we must be careful not to let our ambition blind us to the consequences of

The ambition for satisfaction can consume a person’s entire existence to themselves and others. Although having ambition is considered a good thing, it can be taken too far and hurt others around us. Ambition can get in the way of how people perceive others feelings and might not see how it affects others like how in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby's ambition for Daisy was so strong that he didn’t stop to think about how the situation was affecting her. Gatsby went and told Tom that Daisy never loved him, and that hurt Daisy because she did love Tom at one point.

Macbeth’s mental condition begins to dwindle as time goes on, starting with the murder of Duncan. At first, Macbeth is seen as a soldier that everyone aspires to be, strong, brave, and compassionate about his duties to the king. In act one scene two, Captain says, “...For brave Macbeth-well he deserves that name-...” This shows that he is a likeable person who has only the objective of serving his king. After meeting with the witches and hearing his prophecy, Macbeth starts to think about what it would be like to be king of Scotland.

Ambition is a natural part of human existence, every person has it at least a little. It is when ambition grows too large and takes control of us that it becomes dangerous. It becomes obsessive and soon nothing will stop the person obsessed. Just by looking around at our world today, one can clearly see the results of unchecked ambition. Unchecked ambition can be destructive to a society and cause the society's downfall.

In other words, ambition is not only aspirations that will help people strive to their successes, but it can also fuel a dangerous desire that people will manipulate and use toward ruthless acts. The desire to achieve has proven

Thus, to be clear, when Shakespeare wrote of his characters’ ambition, he was not speaking of their positive desire of achieving something great or a goal they were striving to reach, instead, he was referring to their appetite for power. The protagonists in his tragedies wanted as much power as they can obtain. They wanted to become more powerful than anything else did. This is extremely corrupting, thus, in this context; ambition is a negative characteristic of someone’s character. In William Shakespeare’s plays, we see perfectly clear that ambition was not a positive trait in the Renaissance.

In today’s society many people possess strong ambition when it comes to getting a job, following a passion and being immensely successful in life. Having an abundance of aspirations can have both successful and faulty outcomes depending on the situation and how individuals respond to the circumstance. For example, in the play **Macbeth written by Shakespeare, a prime example of an excessive amount of ambition is displayed through both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s actions. Essentially, Macbeth becomes power hungry and goes on a rampant killing spree that causes Lady Macbeth and Macbeth to be overcome with guilt. They both contain an excessive amount of desires due to their ultimate goal being for Macbeth to be crowned king.

Ambition is when you have the determination or desire to want to achive something no matter how hard you have to work to get it. For example, in Macbeth both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth strive to be powerful, and they are willing do to anything they can to achieve that goal even if that means being dishonorable. This is relevant today, because ambition is a big key to living in the 21st century. If you do not have ambition, you will not be successful. You have to want to get through college, work, school, or even the “social event the could be big for your career,” therefore if you have ambition it will be a breeze getting through all these things.

The road to a fatal outcome can be observed through many different qualities but excessive ambition is one of the main downfalls for most of us in society. Evil motivation due to uncontrollable and unnecessarily high ambition produces difficult obstacles in our lives. We could also become blind to making the right and moral decisions when our ambition is unrestrained. Additionally, all of the paths and routes for immoderate ambition leads to destruction and disorder. Another important note to keep in mind is that chaos and complications will be rooted from not only extravagant ambition but also poor decision making.