Introduction:
Shakespeare’s immense skill to demonstrate the complex web of internal conflict humans deals with through playwriting is why his work and name is still known 400 years later. Shakespeare in ‘Macbeth’ displays a key mentality in humans, ambition. Ambition is the emotion one feels to achieve a goal. Through the main character ‘Macbeth’, Shakespeare demonstrates the destructiveness of ambition causing Macbeth a loss of morals, impoverishment of honour, a loss of sanity and giving him hallucinations. Using the language features symbolism, metaphor, soliloquy and iambic meter Shakespeare illustrates the compelling emotion of ambition controlling Macbeth.
Paragraph 1: Symbolism moral
Macbeth, the main character in ‘Macbeth’, is manipulated by a dire ambition to become king. In the beginning of the play Shakespeare introduces Macbeth as a courageous brave warrior who lead King Duncan’s army to victory over invading troops. “But all’s to weak, For brave Macbeth, well he deserves that name” says captain. He is a humble and loyal man who fights for his country. But after encountering witches which tell him prophecies of him becoming king Macbeth’s mind is infested by ambition. He begins to act with only his greatest desire in mind, making him take extreme, out of the ordinary actions. “Stars, hide your fires: Let not light see my black and deep desires:”, Macbeth is saying that he wants his evil ambition hidden in darkness. Shakespeare uses symbolism as it allows the audience to vision the emotion Macbeth is feeling through his words.
Paragraph 2:
Macbeth wants to gain the throne at any cost, including killing King Duncan or anyone else that gets in his way. Macbeth forgets his core morals in dispute of achieving his ambition. Macbeth has a mental battle with “scorpions [in his] mind”, inferring the conflict of evil ambition Macbeth is dealing with. Using symbolism it allows Shakespeare to create a clear image for the audience to understand what Macbeth is dealing with. His morals are blocking him from taking action on his dire ambition to become king. Ambition soon overpowers Macbeth and forces him to take action, resulting in the death of King Duncan.
Paragraph 3: metaphor honor
Macbeth goal to become king is achieved but he is still not happy. As the order in which he became king he lost all honour and respect that should accompany this title. “Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown“. Macbeth uses this metaphor to describe his hollow achievement of becoming king because he is not honoured by the people of Scotland so the crown doesn’t signify anything. “And that which should accompany old age,As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have”, Macbeth describing the honour that he will not receive that comes with old age, which is interesting as his ambition for becoming king, could be motivated by the honour that accompanies it. He says “he must not look to have it”, as he has come to the realization that he will not be granted this honour because of the fashion in which he gained the title of ‘King of Scotland’.
Paragraph 4: hallucinations soliliquy
Emotionally he is weak and this is shown through Shakespeare’s use of the soliloquy. Shakespeare by using the soliloquy language feature, allows him to give a in depth passage to help the audience understand Macbeth. “Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? […] or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,”. Macbeth has a hallucination of a bloody dagger symbolizing his quilt he is feeling for his actions caused by his ambition to become king. Through his ambition he has been caused to take extreme actions causing extreme effects on Macbeth mentally and caused Macbeth a loss of sanity.
Paragraph 5: iambic meter sanity
Macbeth’s sanity is destroyed gradually throughout the play by ambition. As Macbeth continually takes action in dispute for the ‘golden round’ without thinking through the consequences and impacts in result of. “Which on of you have done this. Thou canst say I did it, thy never shake your gory locks at me”. Macbeth emotions are represented in this quote by the lack of iambic meter. The when he uses the words “say I did it” in the quote above is where he loses the iambic meter. He uses short choppy sentences which shows that he is scared and mentally he is not coping with the truamer that the evil ambition has caused him. In this point in the play Macbeth’s sanity is at a all time low. As he is acted carelessly out of ambition and killed one of his good friends Banquo who he believed was a threat to him. He is so terrified of being accused of the murder he is seeing the ghost of Banquo. Lady Macbeth even believes he is going insane and accuses him of being afraid. Soon ambition destroys Macbeth’s life and death becomes inevitable as all armys and troops of his own turn against him. “Bring me no more reports. Let them fly all. Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane cannot taint with fair. Whats the boy Malcolm? Is he not born of woman”. Again Macbeth loses his iambic rhythm of speech showing the emotion he is feeling. When he uses the words “Is he not born of woman” is a key point in the sentence where he loses the iambic rhythm. Macbeth is terrified and has completely lost his sanity as he relies on the witches hollow promises as comfort. As his kingdom collapses so does Macbeth mentally collapsing as death is clearly upon him.
Conclusion:
Ambition causes Macbeth’s rise and fall in the play. He loses his morals, honour and sanity in pursuit of becoming King. Macbeth reaches his goal to become king but is still not satisfied as he lost all qualities and pleasure in life such as relationships and respect. Mentally he is breaking down as his perceived perfection of being king doesn’t fulfill his ambition and vision. Through the play Shakespeare shows the destructiveness of ambition when not balanced, this is displayed by Macbeth’s downfall.
By Benji Pujol
1 Comment
Add Yours →You’re making excellent progress in this essay. You have set out a clear structure, you’re referring to some strong detail and you’re bringing in references to the play’s context and authorship that help to elevate the observations you’re making.
ADVICE:
1) Your intro contains some very strong ideas about Shakespeare’s purpose in writing Macbeth. You’re expanding your diction with the selection of some very interesting words – however, at times your sentence structure can be a little distracting. Try reading your intro aloud, and if you can modify it to make sure the sentences and ideas flow, this will definitely be an improvement. The formality of your language is exactly right, this issue is simply small decisions in sentence formulation.
2) As we discussed last week, do ensure that you deliberately explain the impact of the language effects that you’re exploring. You have done this best in the iambic pentameter paragraph.
For more information about how to construct paragraphs that examine language effects, remember you can refer to the exemplars and guides published on the class website
3) Experiment with some of the advanced writing effects we’ve explored in class, like quote weaving and the use of figurative language effects in your own right, to elevate your piece further.
4) Some of your topic sentences are particularly strong. Keep your focus on consistently creating this kind of impact throughout.
5) Pay close attention to some of your more obscure words, there are a couple of occasions where you’re using an incorrect word to express your ideas. Where you’re in doubt, go with words you’re secure using.
6) Your conclusion will be crucial to this piece. Your current version uses the elevated language that you are striving for in the whole of your piece. Check all sentences for accuracy, though!
Nice going!