Ambition In Shakespeare's Macbeth

Marcus Aurelius once noted, “A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions.” In other words, a person will never be as significant as their goals and can only be characterized by their actions. This statement can be fought to seen in both the real world and examples throughout the literary world as well. William Shakespeare tells a relating story in renown play, MacBeth, a tale about a man who believes that the termination of others is his only alternative to prove his masculinity and his ambitions into becoming King. I wholeheartedly agree with Aurelius statement, what a man's worth is what he desires to evolve into. Without ambitions, the world as we know it to be today would not exisit, due to the fact that everyone would live
in a utopian atmosphere, yesterday's stories would be tomorrow's dreams. Shakespeare’s relation to the quote can be shown through elements of theme, symbolism, and life affecting decisions made by each character.

As the play open's during act one, the audience is introduced to the audacious and accomplished warrior MacBeth leaving a strong first impression on the audience's attitude towards the leading man. As the play continues, the audience soon discovers that MacBeth's physical ability can not be compared to the insecure, ambitious, and self doubting man thats trapped inside all of the war armor. Shakesphere uses his characters to show the turmoil affects that ambition and guilt can have on a person's intuition if they are internally weak.