May 30, 2014
Ambition and Its Negative Effects guilt
An individual’s ambition can be a crucial factor in aiding one to achieve their goals. However, one’s obsessive desire to achieve their goals can have a series of destructive effects potentially leading to their demise. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, is a novel that depicts the consequences that relate to one’s obstinate devotion to their goal. Characters in the novel strive to achieve their individual goals, however they become blinded by their ambition in the process. Jay Gatsby, the protagonist in The Great Gatsby is an ideal representation of an individual whose ambition lies in his love for a woman he had lost long ago, and how this ambition …show more content…
The witches tell Macbeth that he would soon be rewarded with the title Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and the future king of Scotland. Macbeth. Although he questions the validity of the prophecies, Macbeth is curious to know more. Before he was able to question the witches any further they had vanished into thin air, to which restless Macbeth exaggerated out loud, “Stay you imperfect speakers. Tell me more. /By Finel’s death, I know I am Thane of Glamis, /But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor live /A prosperous gentleman, and to be king / Stands not within my belief, / No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence /You owe me this strange intelligence” (Shakespeare, 1.3.68-74). Macbeth’s curiosity feeds his desire to attain more knowledge about the prophecies and the use of irony aids in displaying his eagerness to know more about his future. Macbeth does not understand how he can be named Thane of Cawdor while the current Thane still lives. This is ironic because little does he know that the Thane had been removed of his title under the charge of treason and that Macbeth had been appointed the new Thane. The