NCEA 1.5 Formal Writing: Ambition in Macbeth

Shakespeare a well known playwright who has been able to keep his writing at the tip of everyone’s tongues for the last 4 centuries through linking his tools of language effects and his extensive knowledge creating an intricate weave which makes his plays so good to read and to watch performed on stage. Macbeth, in the play Macbeth written by William Shakespeare shows that having too much ambition can have a deadly consequence. This is shown through the use of many language features such as Macbeth’s use of symbolism, metaphors, Iambic pentameter and soliloquy’s. This gives the audience an image that ambition, if used wrongly, can have a very destructive nature.

Symbolism in Macbeth is used to show just how hard it is for Macbeth to let go of what he has done and know that Duncan’s ghost will haunt him forever because of the ambition he had at the start of the play. Shakespeare communicates to us that, because of Macbeth’s ambition he has started to go down a road that may not be so good for him with Macbeth saying “Is this a dagger which I see before me” telling us his senses are playing tricks on him trying to make him slip up and also maybe making the audience think that even the senses think that Macbeth has reached to deep. Shakespeare also has Macbeth say “Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood” he is portraying to the audience that all of the water on this earth can not cleanse him of the pain and suffering he has caused. Shakespeare also has linked the roman gods with Neptune being the god of water also known as Poseidon. This together gives us the understanding that Macbeth knows what ambition has caused him to do is wrong and will find it very difficult to not tell anyone.

In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, metaphors are a technique that Shakespeare uses at which the audience is able to get a proper understanding and a painted image in their mind of what has actually happened and just how devastating ambition could be. This is represented at the start of the play by the witches who are like an outer-worldly force to Macbeth who say “Fair is foul, and foul is fair” telling the audience that what is fair to the humans is foul to the witches but what is fair to the witches is foul to mortals making the witches seem like polar opposites to mere mortals. This also communicates to the audience that the witches have something planned that could have dire consequences due to them thinking something up that is fair for them and knowing it will be foul for men. This happens when the second witch says “All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, thane of Cawdor!” then the third witch says “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” which both of these statements are not yet true but have been woven with facts but soon Macbeth is told by Rosse that he is now the thane of Cawdor creating the ambition that leads Macbeth to become king and then later cuts him off his pedestal. This shows us that hearing things that come woven in with facts can pull the person hearing them into a place so deep in ambition that it might become very hard to get out of.

Shakespeare in Macbeth uses the rhythm of Iambic pentameter to communicate that things are normal such as characters that are from earth. This is broken in Macbeth only a few times with the most important break of the pentameter occurring at the end of the play in Act 5 Scene 5 meaning that the audience knows that something very large in the plot is about to happen which the first time it happens Macbeth says “The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!” this is happening because Macbeth’s humanity has slowly started to break down throughout the play due to his ambition to become King of Scotland. This is also backed up with Macbeth later saying “Life’s but a walking shadow” implying that he now has no substance to life because he has lost everything he wanted to have. This is because his ambition in the first place was to be honoured which he has now lost and also he just found out that his wife has killed herself. This shows us that Macbeth’s ambition has bought him into a very hard place and because of his choices will now have to pay the price.

Soliloquy in the play, Macbeth is a mechanism in which the characters are able to share how they are feeling and lets the audience see into what they are thinking. This is portrayed in the final soliloquy by Macbeth just before he is slain by Macduff. When Macbeth finds out that his wife has died, he slowly starts to break down and everything for him that had built up slowly starts to rot away, this is shown when he says “a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more” which Shakespeare is talking about Macbeth making all the commotion and how Macbeth is the poor player which is relating him to being a player on the stage otherwise known as a actor, who will soon be heard no more. Shakespeare then continues to talk about Macbeth who says “Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” continuing to further show that because of Macbeth’s ambition he was an idiot that was all about the talk but now is left to signify nothing further showing us that Macbeth’s ambition was the wrong type of ambition to have. This shows the audience that the soliloquies are a point in which the audience is able to not just see into Macbeth’s mind but also see what Shakespeare thinks personally about these things.

All of these studied components of Shakespeares writing show that ambition is a deadly force that can have dire consequences. This respect towards ambition which is a force that everyone has, which makes me the reader feel as though ambition can be a very bad thing to have and to not under estimate the power of it. This is shown through the use of all language features talked about with them all linking back to the one point that ambition if used wrongly can have dire consequences. This makes Macbeth show has been corrupted due to the ambition and says “O full of scorpions is my mind” showing that the small ambition he once had has now turned into a massive monster. This gives the audience the idea that ambition once shown to have an interest will grow to something out of control.