Macbeth—A Victim of Ambition

Andrew Alzamora

In William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the titular Thane of Glamis is a victim of his own character, namely his obsessiveness, paranoia, and ambition. The dark, dismal atmosphere constantly referenced through the tragedy emulates the inner turmoil that builds within Macbeth through his unnatural quest for power.

Upon his first confrontation with the three witches, alongside fellow commander Banquo, Macbeth notes, “So foul and fair a day I have not seen” (Shakespeare 1.3.39), one of the first instances of the dark, stormy atmosphere throughout the tragedy that sets the unsettling tone for the witches’ prophecy: that Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor and king of Scotland, and that Banquo will father kings. This supernatural premonition, validated through Macbeth’s immediate claim over Cawdor, spurs within him an obsession for the power of kingship to which Macbeth questions, “If good, why do I yield to that suggestion / Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair / And make my seated heart knock at my ribs . . .” (Shakespeare 1.3. 47-49). This physical manifestation of the murderous intent Macbeth holds does not completely take hold of him until King Duncan names his son, Malcolm, as successor to the throne, to which Macbeth then fully embodies his obsession for power through plans of regicide. This obsessiveness proves to be tragically detrimental to himself because it is leading him down a path of murder that will only further entangle him in crime. As Macbeth calls for the stars to hide their fires, keeping his murderous obsession hidden, Shakespeare once again brings into play the dark atmosphere of the tragedy to highlight the darkness that is consuming Macbeth as he moves to murder the king and sate his obsessive thirst to fulfill his prophecy.

Similarly, Macbeth falls victim to his increasingly paranoid character. His obsessive nature leaves him bent on the power the witches have promised to him, yet once he successfully murders King Duncan, Macbeth reveals a glimpse of the regret and paranoia to come: “Methought I heard a voice cry ‘Sleep no more! / Macbeth does murder sleep’—the innocent sleep . . .” (Shakespeare 2.2.47-48). This hallucination, accompanied by visions of a floating dagger leading him to King Duncan and Banquo’s ghost, contribute to Macbeth’s paranoid nature, in which voices and visions of his unsavory deeds lead him to fear the repercussions of his unnatural ambition, a battle between the forces of the natural and unnatural world, such as that of light and dark, that Macbeth tragically grapples with as he navigates the power promised to him alongside the murder it takes to get there. After the murder of King Duncan, upon hearing a knock at his door, Macbeth admits, “Knocking? / How is ‘t with me when every noise appalls me? / What hands are here!” (Shakespeare 2.2.75-77). Again, Macbeth is gravely paranoid of some mysterious force out to make him pay for what he has done, not only highlighting his paranoid character as detrimental to his overall sanity, but highlighting his guilt in the face of his obsession and ambition.

Finally, what may be Macbeth’s most self-detrimental characteristic is his ambition. Spurred through his supernatural encounter with his prophesied kingship, Macbeth’s mind immediately turns to thoughts of murder in the name of ambition, consequently leading to his obsession for power and thus paranoia through his crimes. Lady Macbeth notes upon Macbeth’s character, “Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / the illness should attend it” (Shakespeare 1.5.18-20), highlighting not only the soundness of his ambition, but that ambition requires “illness,” illness that Macbeth has already fostered through thoughts of regicide in the darkness of the forest, the prevalent darkness throughout the tragedy that reflects such vile, secretly desired thoughts. Similarly, in Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 film adaptation of Macbeth, Throne of Blood, Asaji, the on-screen representation of lady Macbeth, tells Washizu (Macbeth), “without ambition, man is not man.” This ties back into why Macbeth’s character is truly what makes him his own victim; he wants to be “the man,” the king, not just Thane of Glamis or even Thane of Cawdor. His overly ambitious nature leads him down a literally darkened, murderous path of obsession over becoming king, the guilt of which leaves him a paranoid wreck.

Macbeth is a victim of his own character because of his obsessiveness, paranoia, and ambition. When confronted with the prophecy of his kingship, Macbeth became engulfed in an unnatural level of ambition that manifested itself into a murderous obsession with his consolidation of power, which in turn left him half mad with the guilt and paranoia of his inhumane deeds. This ties back into the dark atmosphere of the tragedy in terms of what the darkness constitutes: crime, guilt, secrecy, and shame, all of which Macbeth is forced to grapple with since his encounter with the three witches, a supernatural meeting that spurred Macbeth's tragic unnatural ambition.

Works Cited

Kurosawa, Akira. Throne of Blood. Brandon Films, 1957.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth from The Folger Shakespeare. Ed. Barbara Mowat and Paul Werstine. Folger Shakespeare Library.