Blind, Greedy, and Corrupt In the novels “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald and “The Tragedy of Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, the main characters of the stories are blinded by their own goals and ambitions. Both the Macbeth and Gatsby have goals that cause them to become unaware of what the consequences of their actions may be. This unawareness is what eventually leads to both characters downfall. In the case of both characters, once they get a sense that their goals are near, they become more driven and eager to fully achieve their goals. This hunger causes them to make mistakes along their way which get in the way of their dreams becoming a reality.
“I am in blood / Stepp’d in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” (3.4.136-138) In this quote, Macbeth is telling himself that because he has stepped into evil so deeply, it will be hard to go back to morallity because he will never be able to rid of this guilt brought onto him. He begins to feel so remorseful, that he starts hallucinating and realizing that he has done such treacherous deeds. Even though he can still see how his actions are terrible, as the play develops, he begins to inch deeper and deeper into his own destruction of innocence. Macbeth had always felt threatened by Macduff because Macduff knew what a traitor he really was. Therefore, he had wanted to plot to end Macduff’s life as to not pose a threat on his reign any longer.
This action leads to him being considered a tragic hero. Creon’s human flaw of arrogance causes him to ignore reasoning and advice and listen only to his own thoughts. He states, "My voice is the one voice giving orders in this city". He is afraid to go back on his word because it will hurt his pride and he is afraid that it will cause him to lose power with his subjects. This action causes him to lose everyone that he loves.
William Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, is not in fact a play of fate, but a tragedy that happens because of all the uncontrollable greed and need for power by the main character, Macbeth, and his wife. Throughout the play, the audience witnesses the changes in Macbeth’s character. His uncontrollable need for power causes him to make sinister decisions that lead him into madness and misery. His greed for power constructs a maze to his own deathbed. After many twists and turns, it becomes a challenge for him to be tolerated by others; he turns his friends and subjects away from him and enters a dark world ruled by greed.
Macbeth – Power, Greed and Ambition In Shakespeare’s play ‘Macbeth’ the character Macbeth was once a strong, noble, brave, heroic warrior then turned to become murderous, big headed, greedy and powerful maniac. Macbeth’s ambition led him to a murderous path but if it wasn’t for his wife lady Macbeth’s greed and hunger for power Macbeth’s ambition would never have been sparked up so much. Ambition is described as the desire for someone to achieve their own goals. It is the necessary quality you need to achieve anything, but too much can ruin it for you and make you do unnecessary things in order to reach the goals. Ambition and greed is a common downfall for those who seek power.
The speaker is trapped in desire and cannot find his way out. He then goes and compares desire to a "...fool's self-chosen snare..." illustrating that desire is an act of foolishness, in continuation he accuses desire to be a "...web of will..." which is a difficulty brought by men upon themselves. He continues to use repetition on specific sets of words to emphasize his negative impact with desire. Another example is " With price of mangled mind...", an idea of him trying to accomplish the task of defeating desire yet he does not achieve anything but still loses the sanity he had left. The speaker demonstrates desire to be a trap that you won't ever be able to escape.
Alas, Okonkwo’s successful life is marred by his continuous mistakes as the novel progresses. I believe the reason things fall apart for Okonkwo little by little is because he does not learn to balance his outward persona with his inner self. Okonkwo’s monomania is his hatred for what his father, Unoka, stood for. He is so blinded by his hatred for his father that he ignores his father’s words of wisdom. His sick father had said to him “Do not despair.
The Misfit needed a proof; he was in doubt of why he was not saved when his world seemed to be twirling nonstop. Through the process he has lost his trust in the world, in god. It is as if his morals have worn off. Which is why he feels like he “…must take the only pleasure that he know: killing, burning, doing some meanness” (Lynskey
After placing his trust in the witches’ prophecies he has no remorse and will use any means necessary to obtain the throne. Macbeth said, “If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me”(Macbeth, Act 1 scene iii). Macbeth is easily tempted by the witches, his wife, and his own ambitions to get what he believes he is destined to have. After his first crime of killing Duncan he continues with more atrocities with increasing ease. When he has done the deed he changes into the man he never imagined he would become.
At this point, Hamlet’s intense aggravation towards the king blinded him from seeing what he had been doing, and resulted in the killing of Ophelia’s father. Due to Polonius’s death, Hamlet also had lost Ophelia