Shakespeare's Macbeth-Is Ambition Good Or Bad?

Is Ambition Good or Bad? “I have no spur/To prick the sides of my intent, but only/Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself/And falls on the other” (I.VII.25-28). Macbeth follows a normal man, whose name happens to be Macbeth, that is told of his future as king and then he becomes so desperate to make it come true. In the begging, he believes that if he is men tot be king he will and he will not force himself into power. Toward the middle of Macbeth, Macbeth realizes that he will do anything to become king, even murder. In Macbeth, Shakespeare uses ambition within Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches to extremely disrupt Macbeth’s life. In the first place which ambition is shown is, within the witches this causes the change in Macbeth’s character. These witches are the only supernatural thing within Macbeth, and are seen as vulgar. The witches ambition drives them Macbeth about his fate, “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter! ” (I.III.51). “Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none. / So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!” (I.III.68-69). There ambition also causes them to tell Banquo his fate as well. While these prophecies could make
anyone want to be king, they only affected Macbeth and not Banquo. These witches are the main cause of Macbeth’s life changing forever. They awake the Ambition up that is within both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Second of all, the ambition of Lady Macbeth, which caused and encouraged by the ambition of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth was driven to make herself queen and forced Macbeth to overcome the sense of guilt that he felt after the first murder, turning him into a heartless murder. Within this novel the attitude of the characters flip and Lady Macbeth is seen as the one wanting to stop the murders and Macbeth keeps on killing. After seeing everything she has done and how she turned her husband into a murder, she commits suicide, “ Consequently, Macbeth succumbs to insanity, while Lady Macbeth is driven to psychosis owing to her inflexible will and relentless ambition” (Bali 88). Finally, the most evident use of ambition in Macbeth is Macbeth, himself.
Macbeth is told about a prophecy from three witches that he will become king. After hearing this Macbeth immediately to murder, “My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, / Shakes so my single state of man, that function/Is smothered in surmise, and nothing it/ But what is not” (I.III.140-143). His ambition to become king kicks in due to Lady Macbeth, and he commits murder. This is just the first act of many that will overall change Macbeth’s attitude toward life. After the death of his wife, Macbeth’s ambition to become king just grows stronger and he kills Banquo and Macduff’s family. This ambition causes him to believe he is invincible, which leads to his over
demise. As can be seen, Shakespeare uses ambition within character such ad Macbeth, Lady Macbeth and the witches to extremely disrupt Macbeth’s life. This shows that not all ambition is good ambition.