Ambition and power

• CONTEXT

  • The great chain of being. (A set chain.)
  • Monarchs were seen as being appointed to God.
  • Macbeth shouldn't have an ambition to be king as its a transgression act.
• "to be king stands not within the prospect belief, no more than to be cawdor." -Macbeth (Act 1,Scene 3)

  • Macbeth think its impossible to be king.
  • He believes they are appointed by God therefore he can't intervene.
  • King and Cawdor are both linked to Macbeths mind.
  • A later on he gets called "Thee thane of Cawdor." So becomes possible.
  • It makes him believe the prophecies and ambition now becomes possible.
• "My thought,whose murder yet is but fantastical." Act 1,scene 3

  • He believes his ambition to become king is stored by murder.
  • Fantastical-It's only his imagination
  • He then later says "why chance may crown me without my stir."
  • Which shows he could do it without his murderous actions however this all changes when LDM influences him later on in Act 2.
• "That is a step on which i must fall down, or else o'erleap for in my way it lies." Act 1,Scene 4

  • His ambition faces 2 obstacles duncan and malcolm.
  • Overleap is a verb is to jump over something. It is also seen at end of Act 1 , "Vaulting ambition which o'erleaps itself."
  • Steps of great chain being
  • He wants to jump over existing monarch to become king.
  • However, he believes as he tries to step up he might fall.
• "That but this blow might be the be-all and the end-all." Act 1,Scene 7

  • that but this- Means if only
  • Blow- One which will kill Duncan
  • Wants to become king without reaction from wider world.
• "Art not without ambition, but without the illness should attend it."

  Act 1,Scene 5-LDM

  • Repetition of "without" is lack of wickedness
  • which is his illness.
  • Power handed through royal family must be attended by wickedness.
  • Attend here means to have as a servant.