The Uncontrolled Ambition of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth Essay -- Macbeth

The Uncontrolled Ambition of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth There is basically uncontrolled ambitiousness throughout William Shakespeares tragic drama Macbeth. In this essay we will seek numerous examples of this on the part of the two protagonists, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Blanche Coles states in Shakespeares quaternary Giants that the protagonists inhalation was not the usual narrow, personal inhalation He has admitted to a vaulting competition. We ca-ca no other evidence of personal ambition except, possibly, his own word in this speech. Onrushing events crowd the thought out of his principal and out of our view. We do have ample evidence of his ambition for his family, ambition for a son who might succeed him. . . . We think normally of ambition as a personal thing, but it is not always so. Macbeths exceptional imagination, as revealed later in the play, gives him a breadth of vision exclusively out of keeping with a narrow, personal ambition. (50-51) Samuel Johnson in The Plays of Shakespeare explains the place of ambition in this tragedy The danger of ambition is well described and I know not whether it may not be said in defence of approximately parts which now seem improbable, that, in Shakespeares time, it was obligatory to warn credulity against vain and illusive predictions. The passions are directed to their straightforward end. Lady Macbeth is merely detested and though the courage of Macbeth preserves some esteem, yet every reader rejoices at his fall. (133) In Memoranda Remarks on the spirit of Lady Macbeth, Sarah Siddons mentions the ambition of Lady Macbeth and its effect Re I have given suck (1.7.54ff.) Even here, horrific as she is, she shews herself made by ambition, b... ...iion of Critical Essays. Alfred Harbage, ed. Englewwod Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1964. Johnson, Samuel. The Plays of Shakespeare. N.p. n.p.. 1765. Rpt in Shakespearean Tragedy. Bratchell, D. F. New York, NY Routledge, 1990. Kemble, Fanny. Lady M acbeth. Macmillans Magazine, 17 (February 1868), p. 354-61. Rpt. in Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK Manchester University Press, 1997. Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Macbeth. http//chemicool.com/Shakespeare/macbeth/full.html, no lin. Siddons, Sarah. Memoranda Remarks on the Character of Lady Macbeth. The Life of Mrs. Siddons. Thomas Campbell. London Effingham Wilson, 1834. Rpt. in Women Reading Shakespeare 1660-1900. Ann Thompson and Sasha Roberts, eds. Manchester, UK Manchester University Press, 1997.