Theme: Ambition and Power

Macbeth’s profound ambition is sparked by the witches’ prophecy that he will become King. His fixation on the prophecy generates his determination to grasp power by any means possible.
This ambition leads to his moral decline. To achieve the status promised to him, he murders King Duncan, beginning a chain of bloody events and furthering his fall from grace.
Macbeth’s ambition grows with each act, highlighting the destructive nature of unchecked aspiration. His lust for power isolates him from those around him and engulfs his sense of right and wrong.
Macbeth’s vision of a dagger before Duncan’s murder showcases the extent to which ambition has blinded his judgement and values.

Lady Macbeth is portrayed as ambitious, as she yearns for status, power, and intends to achieve it through the manipulation of her husband.
She evokes masculine traits to encourage her ambition, for instance, she calls upon the spirits to “unsex [her] here” to remove her femininity, showcasing her desperation for power.
Her manipulation of Macbeth demonstrates an exchange of roles, with her adopting a traditionally dominant, masculine role.
However, her ambition also leads her to insanity and death, portraying the ultimate consequence of lusting after power. Her guilt causes sleepwalking episodes where she continually tries to ‘wash’ the imaginary ‘damned spot’ of Duncan’s blood.

The relationship between ambition and power is core to the story. The characters’ desire for power fuels their ambition which, in turn, deepens the hold of power over them.
The destructive consequences of ambition are vividly portrayed: moral degradation, madness, death, and downfall of the once heroic Macbeth.
Despite the negative results, neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth can renounce their ambitions, suggesting that power intoxicates and blinds individuals to the point of self-destruction.