Negative Effects Of Ambition In Macbeth

Ambition usually seen as a positive trait can be negative if it leads a person to make wrong choices. The play Macbeth, written by William Shakespeare, shows how one’s ambition can lead them into wrong doing. The audience sees ambition have a negative effect on the characters in the play through Macbeth’s belief in the witches’ prophecies, Lady Macbeth encouraging her husband to do wrong, and the guilt Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have after their decisions.
Macbeth’s belief in the witches cause him to make bad decisions which he feels help him to gain power. Macbeth fights fiercely for the king against Macdonwald, but shortly after hearing Malcom will be the king’s successor Macbeth has “black and deep desires” (Shakespeare 1.4.53) to kill the king. Macbeth’s desire to be king leads him to have murderous thoughts against the king who he has been loyal to. Fearing the witches’ prophecy that Banquo’s descendants will become kings Macbeth calls upon three murders to kill Banquo and
After killing Duncan when Macbeth returns to his wife he is in shock and “afraid to think what [he has] done” (2.2.53). Macbeth becomes guilty after he commits murder and knows that he cannot take it back. At a party Macbeth hallucinates that Banquo is there and after everyone leaves he tells his wife of an old saying that murderers will be “brought forth” (3.4.32-4). Macbeth tells his wife that one day the crimes they have done will one day be brought forth. Lady Macbeth is seen sleepwalking by a doctor and a gentlewoman they see her scrub her hands as she worries that they will “never be clean” (5.1.31) of the all the murders she and Macbeth commit. Lady Macbeth’s regret is shown as she attempts to scrub away the blood or her wrong doings. Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s regret is shown soon after Duncan is killed and begins to become troublesome to them