Lady Macbeth is a victim of her uncontrolled ambition.This ambition causes her to push herself and Macbeth to the very edge. She convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan by questioning his manliness. Lady Macbeth shows her negative ambition and ruthlessness while speaking to Macbeth in this quote: "Was the hope drunk?...Like the poor cat I' th' adage." (Act I, Scene vii, Lines 35-45) In this quote Lady Macbeth is asking Macbeth if he is afraid to kill Duncan, and if he has enough courage to say so. She is asking him if he wants to be king or not, and if he is to be king he must commit regicide.
A lust for power already existed in Macbeth, but it was his encounter with the three witches on his return from battle that triggered his thirst for the throne, and subsequently the deaths of many, Macbeth among the deceased. The witches told Macbeth that he would become the Thane of Cawdor, and when he did, he became obsessed with the idea that he will become the King of Scotland; “prophecy” said so. With the encouragement of his wife, Macbeth murdered King Duncan, and Banquo, who was a comrade of Macbeth. Macbeth then orders the deaths of Macduff’s wife and children, because he fears that they stand a chance of taking the throne. Upon hearing of his families’ death, Macduff returns to Scotland to confront Macbeth, who is slain.
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
There may seem to be many motivations for villains throughout the times but as we study these scoundrels we find that generally they are motivated by pure jealousy, or a need of superiority. They utilize manipulation, both physically and mentally in order to achieve their goals and show a lack of remorse. Stephan King’s “Misery”, provides us with a very graphical depiction in Annie Wilkes a sadistic, mentally unstable retired nurse, who has a desire for power and control. Annie goes to tortuous extremes on her captive Paul Sheldon to realize this. Iago from Shakespeare’s play Othello is also a power hungry villain who enjoys having people under his control, he is driven by extreme jealousy and the motivation, revenge.
After the killing Macbeth would be choosen king and this is when his ambition would take control of him for the worse. Now king Macbeth viewed everyone as a threat to his throne including friends. Macbeth would hire two men to kill his friend Banquo and his son. Macbeth viewed them as a threat to his throne as Banquo was suspicous to how Macbeth had became king and his son was suppost to become king which was promised by the witches. This shows Macbeth ambition gave him the desire to maintain his power by any means necessary if even that meant killing a loyal friend , which he did in getting Banquo killed.
In the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth while being filled with ambition, convinces her husband to kill the king. There are many atrocious crimes committed in the play, not least of all regicide, and the most guilty of all the characters is Lady Macbeth, husband to Lord Macbeth. Lady Macbeth may seem to the outside world to be innocent as a flower, but in fact she uses deception and persuasion to convince others to carry out her bidding. When her lackeys fail at their tasks, she is fully able to finish the deed for them. Near the end of the play she admits to her crimes, further solidifying her guilt.
When she says “What need we fear who/ Knows it, when none can call our power accompt?” (5.1.37-38). In making a comment on this, it not only gives away the fact that she did indeed commit murder, but also that she and her husband, Macbeth, need not worry about people knowing who they had killed if they were able to retain power. The fact that Lady Macbeth was so hungry to for power that she was ready to kill will lead to her self destruction, which would result in her insanity. This demonstrates how ambition can cause destruction. Ultimately, the hallucinations of bloodstains on Lady Macbeth’s hands are what symbolize the guilt and lack of innocence.
This vindictive hatred from Abigail soon prompts a witch hunt involving many innocent people: “Twelve have already hanged for the same crime.” While many panics, John Procter knows this from the start ; “this is a whore’s vengeance”. He tersely identifies the main cause for the witch trials to be directly linked with a spurned lover, who has become disemployed by Procter after having a brief extra-marital affair with her. Still overwhelmed with lustful feelings for John Procter, Abigail decides to manipulate the situation by accusing innocent people of witchcraft, to achieve her own revengeful goal. Abigail is not the only one who takes advantage of the witch trials, to accomplish their revenge. Thomas and Ann Putnam, as a resentful and greedy couple, will take it out on anyone who has caused them trouble.
She enters the play as a woman whose greed initiates cruel thoughts of murder. To manipulate Macbeth into assassinating Duncan, she verbally assaults him by undermining his manhood: "When you durst do it, then you were a man / And to be more than what you were, you would / be so much more the man" (1.7.56-58). She declares that if she is in Macbeth's position, she "would, ... dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you have done to this" (1.7.64-67). She is one to discuss matters rather than taking action. To avoid the consequences, she cowardly does not do the deed herself but instead manipulates Macbeth.
However, all this changed when the three witches planted the seed of betrayal in him and when Lady Macbeth encouraged him to kill King Duncan and become king. Ambition took over Macbeth after he