macbeth

• Themes in Macbeth


  • Ambition and power
• Macbeth's ambition and desire for power


  • Lead to his downfall
  • Shakespeare uses Macbeth to show that having too much ambition and lust for power is destructive
• Macbeth


  • Introduced as a brave hero
  • Driven by a need for power which ultimately sets him on a path to his own destruction
  • His wife shares the same fatal flaw with him
• Macbeth: '"Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself"'
• Macbeth's ambition


  • Leads him to be bloody, ruthless and suspicious
  • He cannot accept that Banquo's descendants will become kings, so he sets out to have Banquo and Fleance murdered
  • He is even unwilling to share power with his wife, making secretive decisions without her
• Macbeth: '"To make them kings, the seed of Banquo kings"'
• Powers of evil


  • Thought to be absolutely real in Shakespeare's time
  • Fascination with witches and witchcraft
  • Interest came from the book "Demonology" published by King James I
• Shakespeare knew that his audience would find this theme very interesting
• Shakespeare uses this theme as a background to the events which take place
• Wicked thoughts and actions

  • The witches' predictions encourage Macbeth to think wicked thoughts and carry out evil deeds
• As well as murder, Macbeth is also guilty of lying, deception, cowardice, seeking out further contact with evil forces
• Macbeth is guilty of behaving brutally with both physical and verbal violence and showing a lack of love and concern for others
• Shakespeare: '"Present fears are less than horrible imaginings"'
• Before the first murder of the play takes place

  There is a slow build-up as Macbeth wrestles with his conscience
• The wicked thoughts in Macbeth's mind are almost worse than the actual deeds
• Macbeth becomes concerned with what might happen rather than reality and uses foul methods to achieve his desires
• Once Duncan's murder took place, a line had been crossed and further acts of wickedness kept on coming