Macbeth's Ambition Petra Zadroga 10th Grade

Throughout all of Shakespeare's Macbeth, the protagonist, Macbeth, infected by prophecy, cruises a downward spiral into more and more vile and unjustifiable acts until he is slain by the loyal hero Macduff. Because of the frequent acts of malice he commits while clawing for the power he knows he is destined to hold, and because of his tendency to always commit an act worse than the one prior, a reader tends to get caught up in vilifying the crazed Macbeth. While he does act as a villain, and while the choices he makes are inexcusable, Shakespeare takes special care to display Macbeth's humanity, doubt, and guilt, and the insertion of the Weird Sisters was definitely intentional; a reader is meant to understand that Macbeth is not a sociopath of no morals, but an ambitious subject of a prophecy which corrupted his weak morals.

The first and most blatant device Shakespeare uses to demonstrate that Macbeth's evildoing is a result of his tragic flaw, ambition, and not the externalization of who he is by nature is the insertion of the Weird Sisters. Before the three witches told Macbeth of his prophecy, he showed no intent to violently overthrow the crown. In fact, he fought hard to preserve the royalty and defend his country, and...