Assessment : Discuss Shakespeare Macbeth as a tragedy of ambition .

Hi

Macbeth is a tragedy written by sir William Shakespeare and performed first in 1606. The plot revolves around the political ambition and one's greed for power and the damaging physical and psychological effects it has on self and people around the individual.

Throughput the play ambition is shown to be a dangerous quality and it is what drives the play forward.  Ambition alone is the cause of Macbeth's downfall and it triggers a series of deaths in the play. Macbeth is inspired by the prophecies of the witches and lady Macbeth further fuels his ambition. When witches greet Macbeth and banquo they refer Macbeth as the thane of glamis and the thane of cawdor and predicted he will be the king of Scotland. When Macbeth was informed about the conferment by king duncan of the title of the thane of cawdor on him Macbeth looks forward towards the fulfillment of the prediction. Duncan's nomination of Malcolm to be his heir seeded the thought of murdering Duncan in Macbeth. He saw it as an obstacle in his way. Lady Macbeth gives the fire to the fuel and urged Macbeth to kill Duncan. Macbeth kills Duncan. Having taken the road to self damnation he is unble to stop, he is now hell bent on removing every obstacle from the way. Realizing the danger from banquo and thinking the throne will eventually pass to the descendants of banquo, Macbeth also has him murdered. Macbeth also massacres Macduff's family warned by the 1st apparation.

Atlast comes Macbeth's downfall. His doom came when he met macduff in battlefield and tells him no one born from a woman can kill him. Macduff reveals that at the time of his birth he was removed from his mother's womb prematurely by caesarean operation thus he is not born of a women. He thus slays Macbeth.

Ambition is thr sole cause of Macbeth's downfall, as it planted the seeds of murder in him which was further fueled by Lady Macbeth and the witches. Macbeth degenerates into a butcher and his tragedy lies on this degeneration. Ambition turned him into a blood thirsty monster and eventually destroys anyone who got in his way as well as himself.

Hope this helps