Macbeth is a play steeped with the theme of ambition, and as such there are plenty of Macbeth ambition quotes to choose from. On this page, we run through the most significant quotes from Macbeth about ambition, each with an explanation giving some context. When Macbeth and Banquo encounter the three witches, they are told a number of prophecies, including that Macbeth will one day be made King of Scotland and that Banquo’s children will sit on the king’s throne. They are both initially skeptical about the prophecies, but Macbeth is intrigued by the prospect of becoming the most powerful man in Scotland. He wonders how it might occur, and foresees undertaking an evil deed to get there:
It is clear that the witches’ words have stirred some ambition in Macbeth. He asks them to reveal more to him of how he will ascend to power but they disappear without telling him, leaving him in a state of suspense. He realizes his path to the crown will likely require violence, but shows that he is uncomfortable with the evil thoughts that are starting to fill his head:
When Macbeth realizes that one of the witches’ prophesies has come true (he has become ‘Thane of Cawdor’, a title of Scottish nobility) he immediately begins to wonder whether it could be true that he will become king. The eagerness with which he speaks these words suggest his ambition is front of mind, even though he understands he will need to commit a heinous, violent act in order to become king – thoughts which at this point he seems to refuse to consider acting upon:
Macbeth goes on to describes his wish to become king as ‘black and deep desires’, which suggests he is struggling with the acts he will need to undertake to fulfill his ambition:
The events of Act 1, Scene 5, display the ambition of both Macbeth and his wife. Lady Macbeth reflects on her husband’s character and acknowledges that he may have ambitious dreams and could be king, but thinks that he is too gentle and not willing to display the ruthless behaviour to make those dreams come true. She seems to understand her husband well and displays her own philosophy of power, where only those who are able to set aside morality can rise to greatness. When she receives Macbeth’s letter and learns about the witches’ prophecy she says:
In the same soliloquy she continues to display her own ambition, wishing he would come home right away so she can use her power to influence over him to act in a way that will satisfy their mutual ambition:
By the end of the first act, Macbeth’s moral fabric is overridden by the lust for power even though he starts to doubt his plan to murder Duncan. He uses a metaphor about a horse rider unable to use his spurs to make his horse go faster, but who uses ambition to leap an obstacle and ends up falling. This quote on Macbeth’s ambition gets to the tension between Macbeth’s unwillingness to continue with his plan to murder Duncan and his understanding that his ambition is leading him to dangerous places:
Ross predicts that ambition will be to blame for Duncan’s murder as Macbeth is unable to conceal his plan to become king. However, Ross believes it will be Duncan’s children that go against nature and kill their father. As it’s Macbeth that kills Duncan, is this against nature too, or his Macbeth’s ambition all too natural?
Once the deed is done and Macbeth is king, he continues to feel insecure and restless. Paranoia starts to creep in that he may lose his position, and he is frustrated he has no heir. There is no meaning to being king if his lineage will not continue after him. This quote shows that by giving in to his ambition and murdering Duncan he has not achieved what he wanted, but that more violent acts must follow:
In case it was in any doubt, in this Macbeth ambition quote he explicitly states that all of his violent actions are for his own good:
Shakespeare reveals at the end of the play that unbridled ambition leads to no good for the protagonist or those around him. Lady Macbeth commits suicide and Macbeth is depressed and surrounded by an army ready to overthrow him. In this famous soliloquy, Macbeth vocalizing that he understands all his efforts were pointless. His wife is dead, he is about to die, and Malcolm is going to be king. He laments:
Shakespeare’s final take on ambition in Macbeth shows how it can be harnessed properly. Macduff plans to avenge his family and his king but doesn’t seek any power himself:
 Read Mabeth quotes in modern English:
In the first of a new series unlocking Shakespeare’s characters for GCSE students, Helen Mears highlights lines to remember when discussing the woman behind King Duncan’s murder… Although she actually appears in around a third of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth’s influence looms large across the text. She is shown as a strong and ruthless woman, with vaulting ambition and courage, able to push her husband, ‘brave Macbeth’ to do anything for her (including murder Duncan), yet she ends the play, and her life, as a broken figure, destroyed by the guilt she has fought so hard to suppress. The character frequently appears in exam questions, often based on the range of her influence upon Macbeth or the presentation of her as a ‘fiendlike queen”. As one of Shakespeare’s most powerful and active female characters Macbeth’s ‘dear wife’ provides rich material for essay responses. Lady Macbeth quotes“Come you spirits, That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here.” (Act I, Scene V, lines 38-9) Although oft-quoted, this can be used to kick-start an intriguing discussion over the difference between Lady Macbeth and the Weird Sisters. Just as they do in their Witches’ Prophecy, Lady Macbeth also calls on evil spirits – it is only the matter of social class that separates them? “And when goes hence?” (Act I, Scene VI, line 58) This subtle and apparently innocuous response to Macbeth’s statement that Duncan is to stay in their castle is a signal to Macbeth that she is thinking exactly the same thing that he is about the opportunity that this visit brings him. “Look like th’innocent flower, But be the serpent under’t” (Act I, Scene VI, lines 64-5) Another much used quotation, but less well-known is that it refers to a medal James I had struck after the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot – the head side features a flower and the underside a serpent. This adds more depth to the contextual historical links the play has. “What beast was’t then, That made you break this enterprise to me?” (Act I, Scene VII, lines 35-6) Here Lady Macbeth begins the fierce attack on Macbeth’s masculinity that will batter him into changing his mind over his decision not to kill Duncan. The key point in this quotation is that it marks the point at which she no longer uses the intimate ‘thou’ with her husband, but the more distant ‘you’ – the first sign of a break in their relationship.
Whether you’re reading Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, Othello or The Tempest, decorate your classroom with these colourful quote posters for students to explore. “Tis the eye of childhood, That fears a painted devil.” (Act II, Scene II, lines 64-5). After calling Macbeth a coward before the murder, she accuses him of acting like a child after it. “What’s to be done?” (Act III, Scene II, line 45) In contrast to her earlier scenes with Macbeth in which she dominated and drove their conversation with long, complex speeches, in this scene she is reduced to short sentences comprised of monosyllabic words. She is losing control of him and he no longer confides in her. “Yet who would have the thought the old man to have so much blood in him?” (Act V, Scene I, lines 35-7) A rare hint of compassion from Lady Macbeth, an unconscious moment that shows her guilt and regret at their actions and perhaps a subtle link back to her statement in Act 2 that ‘Had he not resembled, My father as he slept, I had done’t.” (Act II, Scene II, lines 14-5). She speaks in prose in this scene, slipping from the iambic pentameter of earlier in the play. Prose was traditionally used in the Elizabethan era to express madness; the ordered structure of the iambic rhythm is broken down by the troubled mind of the speaker. Helen Mears is an English teacher, who sits on the education committee of the British Shakespeare Association. |
Which translation of the passage best explains Macbeths reasoning for not murdering Duncan
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