WAGOLL
In ‘Macbeth’, Lady Macbeth and Macbeth have an unquenchable desire for power. It is their
ambition and greed for power that spurs them to commit heinous acts in order to gain
paramount power. Instead of nurturing their ambition and using it to succeed, it becomes each
characters’ hamartia, and arguably is the cause of Lady Macbeth’s demise and Macbeth’s defeat.
The extract features a fragment of Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy at the start of the play. Here we see
how Lady Macbeth’s ambition feeds her desire for pivotal power and has the capacity to
immediately corrupt her. Shakespeare’s use of repetition in Lady Macbeth’s soliloquy, stating
“thou wouldst” conveys how Lady Macbeth’s ambition causes her to instantly think of the
possible hegemony she can have over others. Whilst at first the Shakespearean audience could
believe that Lady Macbeth’s ambition is nurturing healthy desire for success, this viewpoint is
swiftly thwarted as Lady Macbeth believes that an “illness should attend it”. Shakespeare’s use
of the noun “illness” would make the Shakespearean audience profoundly fear Lady Macbeth; it
not only associates her with evilness and corruption but foreshadows her hubristic actions later
in the play. The Jacobean society had a homogeneous Christian belief system, so here when
Lady Macbeth talks about “illness”, fear would be evoked within the Shakespearean audience as
they realise Lady Macbeth’s ambition is ultimately going to cause her to defy God.
The idea that ambition causes Lady Macbeth to commit hubristic acts in order to gain power is
further supported in the extract. In her soliloquy, Lady Macbeth is proposing to the audience
that she is going to “chastise [Macbeth] with the valour of [her] tongue”. Shakespeare’s use of
the verb “chastise” further supports the idea that Lady Macbeth’s ambition causes her to sin.
“Chastise” could be a referent to the condemnation that God will feel towards Lady Macbeth’s
actions whilst Shakespeare’s reference to Lady Macbeth’s tongue cold be perceived by the
Jacobean audience as being a metaphorical Biblical reference, making her tongue comparable
to the serpent that corrupted Adam and Eve. This could further make the Shakespearean
audience be profoundly fearful of Lady Macbeth as they will associate her with sin and
corruption. It could be argued that Shakespeare personifies Lady Macbeth’s tongue as having
valour to not only convey that ambition lowers Lady Macbeth’s inhibitions and makes her act
more courageously, but to also throw into relief that Lady Macbeth is an unconventional
character. In Jacobean England, women were supposed to be weak and subservient therefore
by Shakespeare insinuating that Lady Macbeth is a brave character, the Jacobean audience
would be shocked. Alternatively, a feminist audience may respect Lady Macbeth for not being
complicit in her subjugation and subverting the stereotype that women were supposed to be
weak and subservient. Shakespeare shows through Lady Macbeth’s character that not only does
ambition have the power to corrupt someone but that it can cause you to become more
powerful as seen with Lady Macbeth. Shakespeare could use the theme of ambition as a
warning to the Jacobean audience to nurture your ambition rather than let it taint you.
The idea that ambition has the power to corrupt a character is reinforced later in the play when
Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are discussing regicide. Lady Macbeth questions her husband
asking him, “What cannot you and I perform upon th’unguarded Duncan?” Here, Shakespeare’s
use of an interrogative sentence not only conveys that Lady Macbeth is an immensely powerful
woman as she unconventionally questions her husband, but additionally highlights the extent
to which Lady Macbeth’s ambition has tainted her. Her ambition to become queen has
overridden her moral obligation. This is conveyed through Shakespeare’s use of the adjective
“unguarded” throwing into relief that Lady Macbeth’s ambition is fuelling her desire to commit
