Tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. And the tragedy caused by a specific ambition is known as tragedy of ambition.
Here, we are going to talk about the Shakespearean drama- Macbeth, in which the ambition of the protagonist brings a lot of suffering and results in the fall of the main character.
Ambition is the driving force of William Shakespeare's tragedy ‘Macbeth’. More specifically, it is about ambition that goes unchecked by any concept of morality; this is why it becomes a dangerous quality. Macbeth’s ambition inspires most of his actions, and that results in the deaths of numerous characters and the ultimate downfall of both himself and Lady Macbeth. In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, we discover that Macbeth is a tragic hero. Macbeth is very ambitious, courageous, and a moral coward: all these things lead to his tragic death at the end of the play.
"Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
Hover through the fog and filthy air.”
This means that what seems to be good can turn out to be bad; appearances can be deceiving. Macbeth only sees the good in the situation. He does not see the bad outcomes that can come from his unlimited desire for power. Through this dialogue in the starting of the play the witches foreshadows the downfall in the characters of the play. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is a good and brave soldier who gives his loyal service to Scotland. He wins the battle as well as the respect of the King. As a reward the king honors him with the title, the Thane of Cawdor. Ironically, it is precisely this honor that triggers Macbeth’s corrupt thoughts of wrongfully seizing the kingship. The witches’ prophecy that accurately predicted his new title makes him believe that he is indeed destined to be the king as predicted by their second prophecy. He thus sees the promise of much greater rewards. The prophecies and the realization of one of them tempt Macbeth into achieving his ambition at any cost. Yet increasingly his ambition defeated his good nature. When Duncan named Malcolm the Prince of Cumberland, Macbeth decided on the murder of Duncan. From then on, after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth entered into a life of evil.
Here, further we will discuss how the hidden ambition in Macbeth lightened up, how Macbeth tried to control his feelings, tried to choose a path and how his ambition resulted.
Macbeth’s ambition is driven by a number of factors. For one, he has a deep internal desire for power and advancement. However, that is not exactly why he turns to crime. It takes two outside forces to ignite this hunger and push him to take violent action to obtain power.
One of them is Prophecies
FIRST WITCH.
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
SECOND WITCH.
All hail, Macbeth! hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
THIRD WITCH.
All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter!
The witches are the real trigger to Macbeth's deep and hidden desires. The presence of the witches raises the battle between good and evil. They challenge Macbeth’s character over the course of the play by giving him three simple prophecies about his life. The witches influence Macbeth in his achievements and awaken his ambitions. They give him a wrong sense of security with their sharing of the truth. The prophecy in the play is like Macbeth will be the king but Malcolm was announced as the next king along with Macbeth’s announcement of being cawder, at this time Macbeth did not show but felt that according to prophecies he should be the king this shows that there was an hidden ambition and prophecies gave him hope. We can interpret that he must have felt that something written in fate can be gained only if we try and as a result he stepped towards downfall.
Other is Lady Macbeth-
In a letter to Lady Macbeth, Macbeth writes about his ambition to be king and to help Macbeth Lady Macbeth plans the King Duncan's murder. At a point in the play, Macbeth was not ready to murder Duncan. But Lady Macbeth pushed him and encouraged Macbeth to put aside his guilt and Kill Duncan. She aimed at the male ego of Macbeth and the plan stepped further. Here in the play we can see Lady Macbeth as the fourth witch in Macbeth’s life.
And live a coward in thine own esteem,
Letting “I dare not” wait upon “I would,”
Like the poor cat i’ th’ adage?
-Lady Macbeth
MACBETH
[Aside.] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me
Without my stir.
This dialogue of the play shows that somewhere inside Macbeth is trying to balance between his ambition and morality. Macbeth was afraid that what if they get caught? And refused Lady Macbeth to execute her play. But at that time Lady Macbeth questioned his manhood and called him a coward which outraged Macbeth.
Then further, after killing King Duncan, Macbeth was at climax/ top in his life. But the life one starts with wrong deeds ends worse. From this point the downfall of Macbeth started, Macbeth in order to save the crown and make his own children Kings murdered Banquo and Macduff family, anyone who opposed him was killed.
As a consequence of this dire ambition of Macbeth, a number of innocent people died. Also lady Macbeth kills herself in guilt of murders they did. Near the end of the play, Lady Macbeth sleep walked and had a dream about the killing of Duncan and Banquo. She died because of all this pressure and her guilt about the murder. The Souls of Macbeth have been destroyed since Macbeth loved Lady Macbeth very much.
MACBETH.
Thou losest labour:
As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
With thy keen sword impress, as make me bleed:
Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
To one of women born.
MACDUFF.
Despair thy charm;
And let the angel whom thou still hast serv’d
Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother’s womb
Untimely ripp’d.
Macbeth was arrogant of the prophecy that no man born of women can kill him but The power of nemesis is shown clearly at the end of the play when Macduff came back to murder Macbeth. Macbeth would never have guessed that Macduff would come back for revenge for the killing in Macduff’s household. This nemesis shows an additional force beyond Macbeth’s control. Because of Macbeth’s strong beliefs in ambition and the witches, when he found out Macduff was not born of woman, and also found out the Birnam Wood had been seen moving, he realized that the third apparition had deceived him and he understood he was no longer safe.
As we discussed the definition of the tragedy, befall of the main character. Here we see how the Macbeth following his ambition lightened up by prophecies suffered at the end. He lost his all closed one, we can see that if Macbeth would not have murdered Macduff’s family, Macduff would have never come to fight with Macbeth but as it is said no one can win the destiny. What is destined is to happen.
The character of Macbeth presents before us a complexity of its own kind. Among the whole range of Shakespearean plays perhaps Macbeth emerges as the one that blends both good and evil at the same time. The goodness is his inherent quality, but so is the dark desire of becoming King. He further inherits more evil through external sources and internalizes it to apparently fulfill the prophecy but more to realize the ambition of becoming the King. However, the play as it progresses leads us to the world that Macbeth conceives and creates for himself based on what he comes across. He assumes himself to be safe forever, as it is prophesied that he cannot be killed by ‘any man born of woman’ but destiny has an answer in the form of Macduff. The display of great courage by Macbeth has been closely examined by the critics; considering it as his personal attribute and as something induced by the circumstances occupies a central place in discussing the persona of this great Shakespearean anti-hero.
The ambition or pride of Macbeth results in his fall and is seen as the fall of a great man. It refers to the ancient Greek notion of tragedy involving hubris where the hero falls due to his ignorance shrouded by his pride and ambition. The hero may not be pitied for his fall here and the story of Macbeth is a typical case where we do not see any scope for catharsis as his fall is a result of his personal motives. He who is devoid of all the virtues of becoming a king and is not upright all through doesn’t deserve to be a king. And if he attains it by some means, it may not last for long. The tragedy of King Duncan gets translated into a tragedy only for King Macbeth although he becomes the agent of change. Macbeth’s awareness about his crime makes it increasingly difficult for him to live with himself.
The play has been seen to be very close to the Aristotelian model of a classic tragedy. In Aristotelian norms of tragedy, the tragic hero should be a figure high up in the social ladder and his downfall must be because of his tragic flaw (hamartia) and also by the working of fate. In Macbeth, the protagonist is a figure of eminence in Scotland and it is because of his ambition (his tragic flaw) and the role of fate (the three witches) that he becomes the King of Scotland by murdering King Duncan. He goes down a dark path of treachery and violence. His evil act eventually leads to his downfall which makes us take pity on him and also be fearful of fate. Thus, the purgation of feelings of emotions of pity and fear (Catharsis) happens in the play leading it to be a tragedy in the Aristotelian sense of the term, though the norms of Unities of Time, Place and Action are not being followed strictly by Shakespeare. In spite of taking liberties with these norms, Shakespeare could create a masterpiece, something which is unique as is Macbeth.
Macbeth presents us a society where the codes of honor and loyalty are supreme. Even if we compare this play in today’s world we can clearly compare the situation. Even today the person who is powerful financially or politically is free to do anything. Their children can easily achieve their ideas and ambitions. Money is buying ambitions the true deserving candidates are lacking behind as they don't have power. Even today we hear of cases where people use power to gain what they want, still murders take place to gain ambition. We can take example of Adolf Hitlor and his dictatorship in this context.
Macbeth is a highly notable and unique play because it is the only tragedy that Shakespeare wrote where the protagonist is also the villain.
Thank you for the visit. I have tried to clear the the tragedy of ambition if you feel it needs changes or have some changes do comment.
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