ambition

• ambition

  motivation of macbeth’s actions throughout the play. ambition can spiral out of control leading to greed. ambition can lead to a moral devolution, eventually destroys and corrupts. macbeth’s biggest weakness is ambition
• ''stars hide your fires'' - motif of light

  'stars' 'fires' - light of god

  hiding from the consequences of usurping throne - eternal damnation

  Lady Macbeth - ''blanket of darkness''

  later in play - references to hell suggest M and LM have been seen by god
• let not light see my black and deep desires''

  ''deep'' - embedded, unlikely to change - personal ambition

  'black' - darkness of the witches, black = absence of light of god

  subversion of natural order - ''darkness does the face of earth entomb''
• ''is this a dagger which i see before me?''

  dagger - motif of weaponry, synonymous with betrayal

  Act 1 - uses weapons for fealty, Act 2 - ambition and regicide
• 'it is the bloody business''

  'business' - euphemism to conceal fear of regicide

  • hubristic nature overrules morality
• peripetia

  reversal of fortune, ambition to kill ends with own death