NCEA 1.5 Formal Writing: Ambition in Macbeth.

Ambition (“A strong desire to do or achieve something”) is portrayed in the play Macbeth through Shakespeare’s writing. Shakespeare was a poet, playwright and actor through the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century. The play Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies where ambition is a strong but dangerous quality throughout the play. Shakespeare portrays this quality of ambition through Lady Macbeth’s words and actions using symbolism and metaphors and sentence structure, such as short sentences.

Many may think that Macbeth holds the most guilt in this play. These people are overshading Lady Macbeth though because her ambitions are in fact stronger and more straight forward than Mabeths. This is because she was the one to have the idea of committing these murders and she was the one to push Macbeth to do them. Even if she did not commit the murder she was the brains behind it all. The near thought that she and her husband may rule Scotland pushed her to convince her husband to commit the murders. This is pretty much the exacts description of Ambition. Wanting something so much that you would do anything to achieve that thing.

Blood is one of the major symbols in the play, Macbeth. Blood symbolises the guilt that haunts Lady Macbeth. Her ambition to be a successful kings wife was the dangerous quality to drive her to convince Macbeth to commit the murders. This is why Ambition links back to her feeling of guilt after their deaths. The night of the murder, before even committing the guilty act of murder she asks the direst cruelty to make her blood thick. This is her saying that she wants to stop the passage to remorse from happening to her after her plans to kill Duncan. She doesn’t want to feel guilt or remorse after her plans to kill King Duncan so she resorts to pleading to the direst cruelty to make her blood thick. When she says “make thick my blood” this also means that she wants to become cold-hearted so that she doesn’t feel anything. Relating back to her quote because as blood thickens it will then mean that less blood will be able to access her heart resulting in a cold heart.

“Unsex me here” is another one of Lady Macbeth quotes. This quote is used in Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy. A soliloquy is a dramatic effect that portrays one’s thoughts. They are often used in plays to speak one’s thoughts aloud. Ambition is also the thing to push her to say this. Asking to be unsexed is because women in those days were unable to do many things. Committing a murder as a woman would just not be right. She is saying it as if she does want to commit the murder because she may not be sure that Macbeth can do everything properly. She may want to become a man to be able to do more things that her ambition pushes her to do.

Lady Macbeth feels really guilty towards the end of the play, especially in her dreams and subconsciousness. As she is sleepwalking she starts rubbing her hands together as if she is washing them she then proceeds to say: “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?“. She is trying to wash her hands so vigorously yet she asks herself if her hands will ever be clean of the metaphoric blood on them. This means that she wants to know if she will ever not feel guilty. Her feeling of guilt was caused by the Ambition that pushed her to do so.

“Out, damned spot! out, I say!” Shakespeare uses this entire sentence as a metaphor. It may not seem like one at first but it is. She isn’t trying to remove a physical stain of blood from her hands this is why it is a metaphor because nothing is actually there. This Quotes of Lady Macbeths then reminds the audience or readers how hard it actually is to remove a stain. Putting an image in their minds of exactly what this sentence would look like. The tone of which she is speaking this is also crucial as the exclamation marks show that she is yelling or talking loudly is a commanding way. She may be yelling in commanding kind of way or she may be yelling almost as if she is crying. Shakespeare shows that she is trying to command the blood to leave but she is also pleading for it at the same time as the guilt is hitting her all at once in her subcontinent/dreams. This quote may come across as begging or pleading for the stains to come out. This is true because she is saying “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” in her dreams. She doesn’t want to admit it but her subconscious clearly does because her conscience can not stop her from doing anything when she is sleeping or dreaming. This means that she isn’t in fact as cruel as she comes across as she does actually feel remorse and guilt.

Symbolism is a great way to make the audience use their imagination. Shakespeare does this by convincing the audience that blood, for example, symbolises guilt. Not just any character’s guilt though. The blood in this play only symbolises Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeth’s guilt. Shakespeare shows this by only letting these two characters mentioning the blood on their hands. Lady Macbeth mentions the blood on her hands, the smell of it and the stains that it has left throughout the play, giving the audience a good understanding of the guilt that she is going through. Metaphors also give the audience a sense of imagery in their minds. Shakespeare is actually considered one of the best users of metaphors because he borderline overuses them but this language feature is a perfect way to portray his thoughts to the audience without telling them word to word what is going on.

Simplistic sentences are often used by Shakespeare when Lady Macbeth is talking. Shakespeare uses this method to bring the point across in a direct way. Lady Macbeth’s words are often very straight forward and give the audience a perfect view into her mind and what she is thinking about. Having a direct view into a character’s mind in a play can keep the audience hooked, especially if it is hours long. This is because they feel like they are part of it making them want to know who will find out Lady Macbeth’s dirty secrets for example. Short sentences are not a straight forward language feature. Because short sentences are used repeatedly in Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy Shakespeare tuned short sentences into a sort of language feature.

In Shakespeare’s tragic play Macbeth he successfully uses symbolism, short sentences and metaphors to make the audience or readers put their own version of an image into their minds. He does this by using these three language features excessively during the entirety of the play.