An example of this is his lack of any legitimate reasons for killing King Duncan and obtaining the throne except for his own ambition and greed to become king. The prophecies that Macbeth receives from the witches seem so true that he relies on the words of these predictions alone, instead of taking action himself to secure the works of the prophecies. Macbeth let his ambition blind him; as did the ruler in “Ozymandias”. Another consequence of ambition is loneliness. Ozymandias and Macbeth had so much ambition that they put themselves above all of their peers and former supporters.
Lady Macbeth doubts Macbeth’s ambition which ultimately leads her to manipulate him into assassinating King Duncan. She exclaims her doubt in Macbeth’s ambition due to his morals in saying they “. . . are too full of the milk of human kindness/ To catch the nearest way.” [1.5.13] Her masculinity overshadows Macbeth’s when she asserts her power without contemplation and plans King Duncan’s murder.
Even when Macbeth does have second thoughts, Lady Macbeth is there, insulting his manhood and shaming him into action. She actually does much of the plotting and planning herself. Each time that Macbeth was ready to abandon his evil course, she convinced him to be the serpent under the innocent flower and remain steadfast on his path to power. Even though the witches and Lady Macbeth certainly did play an integral part in Macbeth's downfall, the choice was ultimately his. He could have ignored the hags' prophecies, like
However, this also indicates that his ambitious desires can lead him to a possible downfall. This shows he understands the situation clearly, but he lets himself be pulled in by ambition regardless. Lady Macbeth is the driving force that encourages Macbeth to overcome his strong sense of guilt and take action which helps the prophecies. After reading the letter Macbeth sends her explaining the witches prophecies, Lady Macbeth's thoughts immediately turn to murder. She is the complete opposite of Macbeth.
Macbeth desire to be king causes him to believe the witches for their prophesies have come true before. He is unable to see the witches as the most dangerous characters in the play. Without the witches playing upon Macbeth’s ambitions, it is doubtful that Macbeth would have committed the murders. The witches play the part of the instigators, and help Macbeth to continue his acts of violence. Even though they are able to see that his acts will lead him to his downfall, they continue to let him kill others.
(1.3.71)” Banquo also doubts the intension of the witches, he believes that evil always tells one part of the truth in order to earn one’s trust and lead him to destruction. Banquo warns Macbeth, ”But ‘tis strange./And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,/ the instruments of darkness tell us truths,/win us with honest trifles, to betray’s/In deepest consequence. (1.3.124-128)” On the other hand, Macbeth ignored his friends warning and believes in what the witches say. He is over whelmed by his ambition to be king, he said to himself,”Glamis, and the thane of Cawfor!/The greatest is behind. (1.3.118-119).””Two truths are told/,as happy prologues to the swelling act/of the imperial theme.
In part of the play, Macbeth even admits to his ambition, "I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, and falls on the other." As a result, many decisions were influenced negatively. His choice to kill the king was made too quickly, and had begun the snowballing effect of killing innocent people. After the witches had told Macbeth the four apparitions, he felt as though Banquo needed to be killed, since he was in the way of Macbeths becoming king. Other Characters in the play greatly influenced Macbeth.
One of them being his fatalism described the witches. The witches informed Macbeth’s of him becoming Thane and afterwards the King; however, Banquo’s son was prophesized to become the king after Macbeth. Macbeth feared that part of the prophecy and it was an additional explanation for his downfall. He became paranoid and he reacted only how a threatened individual would: by eliminating the threat. His paranoia reached the point to where he was mentally unstable.
However, Macbeth has the ultimate decision in whether or not to commit the assassinations, but he loves Lady Macbeth and wishes to please her. After Macbeth kills Duncan, he fairly disappointed in himself for doing it. After killing Duncan, murdering others appears to be the only solution to continue to cover up his terrible actions or lose all that he has driven for. Lady Macbeth is force on Macbeth that unleashes the wicked part of him. She has a forceful impact on him and is another key character to blame for his developing desire of killing others to get away with her master plan.
One of the main messages he is trying to deliver to us is to always weigh what you achieve to what the consequences will be. This especially holds true for Macbeth, as when first contemplating if he should kill Duncan, not once did he think of how he could be punished. Also, when Macbeth first hears the witch’s prophecy of him being a king, he jumps directly to the idea of murder. This kind of thinking is exhibited in Macbeth’s monologue in scene 5 act 5, where he discus’s the uselessness of living, and this attitude towards life made him go mad. This also points to how unintelligent Macbeth really was.