macbeth ambition activities

William Shakespeare

Everything you need for every book you read..

Ambition Theme Icon

Macbeth is a play about ambition run amok. The weird sisters ' prophecies spur both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to try to fulfill their ambitions, but the witches never make Macbeth or his wife do anything. Macbeth and his wife act on their own to fulfill their deepest desires. Macbeth, a good general and, by all accounts before the action of the play, a good man, allows his ambition to overwhelm him and becomes a murdering, paranoid maniac. Lady Macbeth, once she begins to put into actions the once-hidden thoughts of her mind, is crushed by guilt.

Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to be great and powerful, and sacrifice their morals to achieve that goal. By contrasting these two characters with others in the play, such as Banquo , Duncan , and Macduff , who also want to be great leaders but refuse to allow ambition to come before honor, Macbeth shows how naked ambition, freed from any sort of moral or social conscience, ultimately takes over every other characteristic of a person. Unchecked ambition, Macbeth suggests, can never be fulfilled, and therefore quickly grows into a monster that will destroy anyone who gives into it.

Ambition ThemeTracker

Macbeth PDF

Ambition Quotes in Macbeth

Fate Theme Icon

macbeth ambition activities

How to Get Students Excited About William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

  • Reading Instruction

Macbeth  was the first Shakespeare play I ever taught, and it helped me appreciate how much fun your students can have while acting out a drama in the classroom! Here are some of my favorite activities and lessons to use with William Shakespeare’s Macbeth .

A hand lifts up a black sheet or drape. The fingers point to the sky and appear under violet and red letters that read: How to Get Students Excited About William Shakespeare's Macbeth

This post this post may contain affiliate links .  Please read the  Terms of Use .

Getting Started with Macbeth

As with any unit, getting students excited is essential! Sometimes students have previous experiences with Shakespeare or expectations about how boring Shakespeare can be. For this reason, I always try to engage my students with enthusiasm. Here are some of my favorite ways to engage students in Macbeth :

Firstly, we begin by making a cast “family tree.” This helps students begin to see the connections between characters . As we build our cast anchor chart , I give students a little preview of how the character acts and behaves. Plus, this generates excitement!

Secondly, I bring in the witches . The Weird Sisters are some of the most memorable characters in Macbeth , so they are a great opportunity for engaging students. We begin by close reading the first scene and then watching several film adaptations . Students can analyze how different directors’ choices affect the mood, and they can begin making predictions about the play. Here are some excellent versions of the play:

  • Macbeth (2015) directed by Justin Kurzel and starring Michael Fassbender.
  • Macbeth (2011) directed by Rupert Goold and starring Patrick Stewart.
  • The Royal Shakespeare Company does Macbeth (2018) directed by Polly Findlay and Robin Lough.
  • Macbeth (1979) directed by Philip Casson and starring Ian McKellan and Judi Dench.

Thirdly, I use this free anticipation guide . This activity helps students begin making connections to the text, activate prior knowledge, and engage in conversation. Depending on the group of students I have, this resource can be part of station rotation or part of a classroom discussion .

While Reading Macbeth

Infographic featuring a woman's hand pulling up a black sheet. This image appears under plum and white text about how to engage students in Macbeth

During our reading and acting of Macbeth , I use this modified and abridged version of the text. While Macbeth is a short play, I often find myself wanting to abbreviate or eliminate some scenes and adjust some vocabulary (the Porter, anyone?). For this reason, I designed this modified and abridged resource with the text on one side and guided reading questions on the other.

Throughout our reading, I encourage students to make connections with the text through the use of journals . By writing about the play, students have an opportunity to see how the text remains relevant. This also allows me to check for understanding, preview themes, and keep students writing regularly even in a reading-heavy unit.

Task cards are another great way to check for understanding throughout the play. While journals are usually bell ringers during this unit, task cards can be exit tickets or parts of station rotations . I choose the task cards based on the skills my students most need to work on. Here are some of my favorite task card sets:

  • Characterization Task Cards
  • Plot and Conflict Task Cards
  • Figurative Language Task Cards
  • All of these task cards (and more) are included in my ELA Task Cards Bundle !

Additionally, it’s important for students to discuss the text throughout our reading. During discussion, students can evaluate Macbeth’s character development, Lady Macbeth’s influence, and the dangers of ambition and revenge. Similarly, discussions can also re-visit the ideas featured in the anticipation guide, giving us time to re-evaluate how or if our opinions have changed. Depending on my group of students or the time of the year, silent discussions can be a good way to go!

My favorite!

Finally, my favorite part of reading Macbeth is the banquet. I start talking about the banquet in the first act. As we get closer to the banquet scene, my students plan their own banquet. We push our desks into a long banquet table, in non-pandemic years everyone brings in food, and we feast while Banquo haunts Macbeth! It’s a fun way to emphasize the climax of the play! (Plus, my students love food days!)

Macbeth Essential Questions

During our reading, students and I stay focused on essential questions. While we’re reading, these essential questions can become journal prompts, questions for discussion, or the basis for a larger writing or project.

  • Firstly, is ambition dangerous?
  • Secondly, is fear a good motivator?
  • Is weakness an innate part of humanity?
  • What does it mean to be a strong leader?
  • Are leaders born or made? How do you know?
  • Does free will exist, or does each person have a destiny?
  • Finally, what are the elements of a successful relationship?

Synthesizing Macbeth

Throughout our reading of Macbeth , we emphasize synthesizing . Students can synthesize the intersection of Macbeth with its historical contexts . Did Shakespeare include witches because King James I was interested in witchcraft? Was he honoring the king by including his potential ancestor Banquo?

In addition, I often encourage students to synthesize across media . To do so, we might return to film versions of the play. However, I often prefer to use artwork for this pursuit. To make this activity successful, I have put together 23 images of different scenes from the play, including multiple portrayals of the Weird Sisters and of Lady Macbeth. As with the film clips of the opening scene, analyzing different pieces of art provides students with a chance to evaluate how artists use shade, lighting, and composition to create mood.

Similarly, as we near the end of the text, I also incorporate paired passages. This allows students to synthesize across texts, evaluating how different authors comment on similar subjects. Here are some paired passages that work with Macbeth :

  • Firstly, “I, being born a woman and distressed” by Edna St. Vincent Millay provides an interesting view on womanhood. Since Macbeth comments on gender roles, this poem is a great opportunity. Read it here .
  • Secondly, “Miniver Cheevy” by Edwin Arlington Robinson features a protagonist obsessed with what he can never have. Unlike Macbeth, Miniver does not resort to violence to achieve his goals. However, like Miniver, Macbeth is obsessive. Read it here .
  • Thirdly, Shakespeare’s sonnets are a good complement to any of his plays. This post describes an inquiry-based approach to teaching Shakespeare’s sonnets . In particular, I often show the Crash Course about Shakespeare’s sonnets and give students an opportunity to write their own .

Extending and Assessing

One of the great things about teaching Macbeth is the opportunity to continue the learning beyond the play. While I don’t give a traditional test about the play, I do usually show the Crash Course episode about Macbeth as a review at the end of the play and as a lead-in to summative discussion.

Finally, Macbeth lends itself so well to applying literary criticism ! In particular, Lady Macbeth makes a great opportunity for feminist criticism. Similarly, Macbeth suits archetypal criticism well because he is such a clear tragic hero. The imbalances in the play and the violence also make it a candidate for psychoanalytical criticism.

What other strategies do you use to get students excited for reading Macbeth ?

Kristi from Moore English #moore-english @moore-english.com

Photo by Bogdan Kupriets , Valentin Salja , and Yevhen Ptashnyk on Unsplash

Read these posts next...

A large suspension bridge crosses a blue expanse of water. This appears under text that reads: Abridging Your First Text? Use these 7 Tips to Keep it Easy

Abridging Your First Text? Use these 7 Tips to Keep it Easy

A black notebook with a white pencil appears on a yellow background next to text that reads: Abridge a Text When You See These 4 Surefire Signs

Abridge a Text When You See These 4 Surefire Signs

A person stands on a tall cliff. They are silhouetted against a blue sky and appear under text that reads: According to the Sorting Hat, "ambition" is a Slytherin characteristic. In Julius Caesar and Macbeth, ambition plays a part in our heroes' downfalls. After all, ambition is a necessary ingredient in pursuing your goals and holding high expectations for yourself. When I was brainstorming and trying to think of my annual word of the year, I cycled through countless options. However, when I think of 2024, I think of two major goals: to complete both of those goals, I need ambition.

2 Reasons Ambition is My Word of the Year

Confetti appears under text that reads: My Absolute Favorite Books of the Year

All My Absolute Favorite Reads from 2023

macbeth ambition activities

Let's Stay in Touch

Join Moore English

A hand lifts up a black sheet or drape. The fingers point to the sky and appear under violet and red letters that read: How to Get Students Excited About William Shakespeare's Macbeth

Theme of Ambition in Macbeth

  • by Guiding Literature
  • April 1, 2023 April 1, 2023

The theme of ambition is one of the most prominent and important themes in Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth.” The play explores the dangers of unchecked ambition and the corrupting influence of power, as the characters pursue their goals with ruthless determination.

From the beginning of the play, Macbeth is portrayed as a brave and loyal soldier who is respected and admired by his peers. However, his ambition is sparked when he hears the witches’ prophecy that he will become king. He becomes consumed by the idea of power and begins to consider murder as a means to achieve his goal. His ambition drives him to commit regicide and ultimately leads to his downfall.

Lady Macbeth also demonstrates a strong desire for power and control. She manipulates her husband into committing the murder and pushes him to take increasingly ruthless actions to maintain his position. Her ambition and thirst for power lead her to become consumed by guilt and ultimately to descend into madness.

The theme of ambition is also reflected in the characters of Macduff and Malcolm, who seek to overthrow Macbeth and claim the throne for themselves. However, their motivations are not solely driven by ambition, but also by a desire to restore order and justice to Scotland.

What is Macbeth? - Twinkl

Throughout the play, Shakespeare highlights the dangers of unchecked ambition and the consequences of pursuing power without moral boundaries. Macbeth’s ambition leads him to commit heinous crimes and ultimately brings about his own downfall. The play suggests that ambition, when not tempered by reason and morality, can lead to destruction and chaos.

Shakespeare also explores the idea that ambition is not inherently evil but can become dangerous when it is pursued without consideration for the consequences. Macbeth’s ambition is initially driven by a desire for power and glory, but as he becomes more obsessed with his goal, he loses sight of his moral compass and becomes consumed by his desire for power.

Furthermore, the theme of ambition is intertwined with the theme of fate and free will. The witches’ prophecy sets Macbeth on a path towards his ultimate downfall, but it is his own choices and actions that lead him there. Shakespeare suggests that although fate may play a role in our lives, it is ultimately our own choices and actions that determine our fate.

The play also explores the idea that ambition is often a double-edged sword. While it can lead to great achievements and success, it can also lead to destruction and downfall. Macbeth’s ambition initially brings him success and power, but it ultimately destroys him and everything he holds dear.

In conclusion, the theme of ambition is a central and important theme in Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth.” The play explores the dangers of unchecked ambition and the corrupting influence of power, as the characters pursue their goals with ruthless determination. The play suggests that ambition, when not tempered by reason and morality, can lead to destruction and chaos. It also suggests that ambition is not inherently evil but can become dangerous when pursued without consideration for the consequences. The theme of ambition is intertwined with the themes of fate and free will, and the play explores the idea that ambition is often a double-edged sword.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Storyboard That

  • My Storyboards
  • Log In / Register

The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare

Tragedy of Macbeth Lesson Plans

Students will love creating a Macbeth storyboard to summarize the story and examine the various characters and literary devices. Check out the Macbeth lesson plans below that are Common Core aligned. These Macbeth activities and Macbeth projects ideas are designed to save teachers precious time all while engaging students!

Student Activities for Macbeth

Macbeth by William Shakespeare - Five Act Structure

William Shakespeare's Macbeth continues to be one of his most celebrated plays, even today. While it is not one of his more elaborately constructed works, it nonetheless examines the complicated nature of the human soul, especially when tempted with power and ambition. We watch Macbeth as he is tempted by the lure of the crown, and ultimately—with prodding from Lady Macbeth—decides to murder King Duncan and usurp the throne.

In this moment, he becomes not a king, but a tyrant, and ultimately it is this flaw in his character, his violent ambition, that leads to his downfall. The play examines important themes such as the danger of unbridled ambition, the contrast between a true leader and a tyrant, and the age-old debate of fate vs. free will in a person's life.

Macbeth Essential Questions

  • How does ambition motivate people, as both a positive and negative trait?
  • When do you feel guilt, and when do you experience remorse?
  • To what extent, and in what ways does power affect a person's actions?

Macbeth by William Shakespeare Summary

Please note: This summary comprises the full story of Macbeth and therefore contains spoilers !

The Tragedy of Macbeth play is one of William Shakespeare's best-known works. The shortest (and one of the bloodiest) of Shakespeare's tragedies, the story begins with victory and honors for the brave Scottish general, Macbeth. The play follows his descent from noble soldier to nefarious traitor.

As the play begins, Macbeth receives a prophecy from three witches that one day he will become king. This prediction inevitably consumes him with ambition and greed. He is further led down his treacherous path by his wife, Lady Macbeth, who urges him to murder King Duncan and seize the throne without hesitation. Having done so, and ascended to the throne, Macbeth is consumed by guilt and fear. He becomes tyrannical, paranoid, and suspicious. He resorts to killing others to secure his place, and, as the bloodbath continues, this drives both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to arrogance, madness, and their eventual deaths.

Macbeth’s good friend, Banquo also was also given a prophecy by the witches. They said that, although Banquo would never be a king, he would produce a line of kings. Banquo accepted this fate with patience while Macbeth took action against Banquo and his son, Fleance.

Macbeth is not Shakespeare’s most complex play, but it is one of his most thrilling and emotionally intense. Shakespeare’s other major tragedies explore the intellectual dilemmas faced by the characters, while Macbeth meteorically rises and plummets from beginning to end.

About the Author

William Shakespeare is perhaps the most well-known playwright of all time. Born in April of 1564 in a small city in England, little is known about his childhood life. He had two older sisters and three younger brothers, and enjoyed learning about history and poetry in elementary school. When he was older, William married Anne Hathaway, with whom he had three children.

William was part of Lord Chamberlain’s Men, an acting company in England. He wrote plays and acted for the company, and his plays became very popular in the city. As he became more and more well-known, Shakespeare wrote more and more plays, averaging about a play and a half per year and totalling 37 plays in his lifetime!

Shakespeare died in 1616 at the age of 52, but is still known as one of the most influential writers of the English language. His works are the most often quoted, second only to the Bible!

Discussion Questions to Use in Pairs or Groups

These questions may be used during reading, or upon completion of the play. While it is best to get students discussing what they’ve read, these questions can also be answered individually in a reader’s notebook. It is always such a joy to hear the different opinions that students have, even though they are reading the same information!

  • Macbeth’s actions were influenced by others in the play. Who influenced the decisions that he made? Give specific examples from the play to support your answer.
  • What do you think is the major theme of this play? Give examples of how it is prevalent throughout the play acts . Note: others may have varying opinions!
  • Obviously Macbeth’s character changes a great deal from the beginning to the end of the play. Discuss the ways in which he has changed. Be sure to back up your answers with textual evidence.
  • What are some examples of Macbeth’s good qualities that have been used for the wrong purposes?
  • What are the consequences for the choices that Macbeth made throughout the play?
  • Discuss your thoughts on Lady Macbeth. Does she play as much of a role as Macbeth does, when it comes to their fate?
  • How is Macbeth’s friend, Banquo, vastly different from Macbeth? What happens to him?

Macbeth Activities and Project Ideas

Storyboard That is an excellent tool for students to create fun and engaging projects as a culminating activity after finishing a novel or a play. In addition to our premade activities, here are some ideas that teachers can customize and assign to students to spark creativity in individual students, pairs, or small groups for a final project. Several of these ideas include Storyboard That template that can be printed out or copied into your teacher dashboard and assigned digitally. All final projects can be printed out, presented as a slide show, or, for an extra challenge, as an animated gif!

  • For Groups: Choose a scene from the play to reenact it to the class. Use the traditional storyboard layout to plan out your scenes. You can add text to your storyboards, or simply use the cells to visualize each scene of your play.
  • Using the timeline layout, retell the play in chronological order. Our timeline layout gives you the options to include year, month, day, and even hour! You may also choose to omit these altogether.
  • Choose a setting from the story and create a map of the setting using the small poster or worksheet layout. Use free form or other text boxes to include a key or label the different parts of the map.
  • Using one of Storyboard That’s board game templates , create a game based on the play for your classmates to play!
  • For Groups: Divide the scenes of the play amongst your group members. Each member of the group creates a storyboard for their assigned scene. This can be done as a collaborative project, or separately for longer plays and novels.
  • Using the worksheet layout and Storyboard That’s worksheet assets, create a test or a quiz for other students in the class. You can create all kinds of questions such as multiple choice, short answer, and even matching! When you are done, be sure to make an answer key.
  • Using one of Storyboard That’s biography poster templates, create a poster about the character of your choice. Be sure to include important biographical features such as: place and date of birth, family life, accomplishments, etc.
  • Choose a scene from the play and create a storyboard that shows that scene from another character’s point of view. For an extra challenge, use the T-chart layout to compare the original point of view with another character’s point of view!
  • Create a book jacket of the play using one of Storyboard That’s book jacket templates. Use Storyboard That art to create the cover, and write a summary of the story on the back, just like real books have!
  • Using one of Storyboard That’s social media templates as a starting point, create a social media page for one or more of the characters in the play. Be sure to think how the character thinks while creating this page.
  • Create a scrapbook page made by one of the characters in the play. Storyboard That has lots of premade templates that you can use as is, or change to fit your character’s personality! Check out our scrapbook templates today!
  • Who is the third murderer of Banquo? Come up with a solution to this mystery!
  • Connect the witches' prophecy to Macbeth's downfall in each act. Create a storyboard to describe their connection.
  • Create a Macbeth storyboard that shows the ways Lady Macbeth portrays the theme of ambition.
  • Create a storyboard to visually depict a major soliloquy or monologue from the play.

Buy Macbeth on Amazon

Other Plays Written by William Shakespeare

  • All’s Well That Ends Well
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • As You Like It
  • Love’s Labour’s Lost
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • The Taming of the Shrew
  • The Tempest
  • The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
  • The Tragedy of Hamlet
  • The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
  • The Tragedy of Othello
  • The Tragedy of Richard III
  • The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
  • Twelfth Night

How to Analyze "The Tragedy of Macbeth" Using Storyboard That

Choose a macbeth analysis topic.

Select a specific aspect of "The Tragedy of Macbeth" that you want to analyze with your students. This could include themes, characters, literary devices, or key scenes. For example, you could focus on the theme of ambition, the character development of Macbeth, or the use of dramatic irony.

Select a Storyboard Template

Choose a storyboard template that best fits your analysis topic. Consider using the plot diagram template to analyze the story's structure, the character analysis template to delve into the traits and motivations of specific characters, or the theme analysis template to explore the central themes of the play.

Customize the Storyboard

Customize the storyboard template by adding text boxes, images, and captions to analyze and explain your chosen topic. Encourage students to use quotes from the play as textual evidence to support their analysis. They can also incorporate visual elements to enhance their understanding and interpretation.

Complete the Analysis

Guide your students in completing their storyboard analysis. Encourage them to thoroughly analyze their chosen topic, provide thoughtful interpretations, and make connections to the overall meaning and impact of the play. Remind them to use specific examples and evidence from the text to support their analysis.

Discuss and Share

Facilitate a class discussion where students can share their storyboard analyses. Encourage them to explain their interpretations, listen to their classmates' perspectives, and engage in respectful dialogue. This collaborative discussion will deepen their understanding and encourage critical thinking.

Frequently Asked Questions about Macbeth

What are the main themes in macbeth .

There are many ongoing themes in this play. The supernatural is a consistent theme, with the Three Weird Sisters being the most prevalent example of the supernatural. Some other themes in Macbeth include ambition, power, and appearance versus reality.

Who are the main characters in Macbeth ?

While there are many important characters in this play, the main characters include Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, King Duncan, Banquo, and Macduff.

Why does Macbeth kill Banquo?

Although Banquo was once Macbeth’s trusted friend, Macbeth realizes he can no longer be trusted and thinks that Banquo is a threat to him. As a result, Macbeth has Banquo murdered.

Try 1 Month For

30 Day Money Back Guarantee New Customers Only Full Price After Introductory Offer

Learn more about our Department, School, and District packages

RSC-Donate-button_V4

Learning Resources

William Shakespeare

Discover teaching ideas and lesson planning inspiration through our range of resources, activities and other supporting materials on Shakespeare's Macbeth.

About the Play

  • Past productions
  • Merchandise
  • Macbeth on the Shakespeare Learning Zone

L&NP Image 4 Social

INSET DAYS ON MACBETH

"Fantastic workshop with so many useful activities, thank you for a great session that will enhance the children’s learning." - Primary Teacher in Nottingham

Book an INSET day with the RSC on teaching  Macbeth  for Primary, Key Stage 3, GCSE or A-level. Our INSET Days explore techniques used in our rehearsal rooms and and look at how you can use these in the classroom to bring Shakespeare to life.

Find out more

Resources and Activities

Macbeth follows the story of a Scottish nobleman who is told by witches that he will become king one day. Inspired and driven by their prophecy, he goes on to kill the king and take the throne.    

When Macbeth was written, King James I was on the throne of England and his fascination with witchcraft and magic can be seen throughout the play. There are lots of themes you can choose to explore in Macbeth , including:

  • Fate and free will
  • Grief and despair
  • Loyalty and deception
  • Duty and honour

You can discover more about these themes and where they appear in the text in our Themes Resource .

DOWNLOAD FREE RESOURCES

Access Teacher Packs, a Macbeth synopsis and activities by downloading these PDFs: 

  • New Macbeth Teacher Pack 2023
  • Macbeth Teacher Pack 2018
  • Macbeth Activity Toolkit
  • Check out our Learning YouTube for more videos about Macbeth

SIGNING SHAKESPEARE FOR DEAF STUDENTS

This programme was created by the University of Birmingham and the RSC to support deaf young people in their study and enjoyment of Shakespeare. There is a scheme of work for the study of  Macbeth , supported by resources including a series of films created by deaf actors and directors.

Go to Signing Shakespeare

Shakespeare Learning Zone

Students will find many resources on Macbeth in our Shakespeare Learning Zone , including scene by scene analysis, activities on character relationships, in depth scene studies and PEE grids. These resources are also perfect to be used by teachers in the classroom.

Studying Shakespeare? Then you'll love our  SHAKESPEARE LEARNING ZONE! Discover loads of facts, videos and in-depth information about Shakespeare's plays.

macbeth ambition activities

Really get to grips with the stories, settings and characters of Shakespeare's plays. Unlock his language using the same techniques our actors use in rehearsals.

Discover now

In This Section

macbeth ambition activities

All the information you need about the play is here, from Story to Characters, Language to Performance, including videos and photos from our shows.

macbeth ambition activities

Murder, superstition and madness haunt this terrifying tale.

More Information for Teachers

Shakespeare's Globe

Shakespeare's Globe logo

Macbeth: Themes KS4/5

In these lessons, students will engage with the themes and ideas at the heart of the text, including deception, ambition, and guilt. Tasks include: tracking these themes throughout the play, drawing out key quotations; creative writing on Lady Macbeth's sleep walking, in the character of her doctor; and a list of practice exam questions with an emphasis on themes and motifs.

In order to benefit fully from these lesson plans, we recommend you use them in the following order:

  • Text in Performance

If you would like to teach the play in greater detail, use these advanced KS4/5 Lesson Plans. If students are new to the play, we suggest you start with the introductory  KS3 Lesson Plans . 

These lesson plans are available in the Downloads section at the bottom of this page.   To download resources, you must be logged in.  Sign up   for free  to access this and other exclusive features .  Activities mentioned in these resources are available in a separate downloadable 'Student Booklet', also at the bottom of this page. The 'Teachers' Guide' download explains how best to use Teach Shakespeare and also contains a bibliography and appendices referencing the resources used throughout.

Key Questions for Students:

Can I identify why the themes of appearance and reality are important and pick out examples from throughout the text?

Can I explain the importance of these examples by placing them in the context of the play as a whole and the overall development of these themes?

Key words: appearance, deception, plot, reality, theme, thought-tracking

Prologue: Opening Discussion

Introduce the theme of appearance and reality and display a quiz-show style board numbered 1-25. Students should pick one square and if it reveals a quotation, they should place that quotation in context and talk about how it connects with the theme of appearance and reality. As a class, students should try to make a full line of five quotations across or down the board. But beware, as some squares will have something much more dangerous behind them (pictures of daggers, witches, blood, etc.) Give students a fixed amount of time or a fixed number of attempts to increase the excitement! Some suggested quotations you could use are included in the Asides.

Enter the Players: Group Tasks

1) Tracking the theme

Students should use the mindmap to help them track the theme of ‘appearance and reality’ in the play. Students could be divided into five groups, each taking one Act from the play. They should read through it carefully, looking for evidence before reporting back. Students could also prepare a sheet of evidence that can be made accessible to all their classmates as a revision aid. Students should aim to keep quotations short (under 10 words), and write a brief commentary about how their quotation links to the overall theme.

2) Exploring more deeply through drama and creative writing

The following drama activities can support students’ further explorations of this theme:

  • Yes/No game: One student is chosen or volunteers to answer questions. They must answer any questions asked of them by the rest of the class without saying ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, and they should aim to be as inventive as possible. The discussion that follows this game could encourage students to think about how language can be used to get around giving a direct and simple truthful answer. Jessica Swale suggests this activity can work ‘as an effective prelude to playwriting exercises’.
  • the mouth card means that they should say or paraphrase a line they say in the scene (not an aside)
  • the head card means that they should talk about what they are really thinking
  • the heart card means that they should talk about how they are feeling at this moment

3) Interpreting and staging key scenes

Assign to groups of students the task of staging a scene where they feel this theme is crucially important, e.g. Act 1 Scene 3, Act 1 Scene 4 or Act 2 Scene 2. Afterwards, reflect as a group and as a whole class on how well the various performances explored the themes of appearance and reality and how this was achieved.

macbeth ambition activities

Exeunt: Closing Questions for Students

Why are appearance and reality important themes in the play?

How would I describe the development of these themes throughout the play?

How do these themes link to the other major themes in Macbeth that I have studied?

Suggested plenary activity…

Everyone in the class picks out three key moments that they think are particularly crucial when thinking about the themes of appearance and reality. Compare findings.

Asides: Further Resources

Quotations you could use in the Prologue activity:

  • “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”
  • “Are ye fantastical, or that indeed/Which outwardly ye show?”
  • “…why do you dress me /In borrow’d robes?”
  • “There’s no art/To find the mind’s construction in the face.”
  • “Let not light see my black and deep desires.”
  • “…look like th’innocent flower,? But be the serpent under it.”
  • “This castle hath a pleasant seat.”
  • “False face must hide what the false heart doth know.”
  • “…art thou a dagger of the mind/A false creation”
  • “If he do bleed,/I’ll gild the faces of the grooms withal,/For it must seem their guilt.”
  • “…sleek o’er your rugged looks;/ Be bright and jovial among your guests to-night.”
  • “This is the very painting of your fear.”
  • “A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the benefits of watching.’’
  • “…now does he feel his title/ Hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe/Upon a dwarfish thief.”
  • “As I did stand my watch upon  the hill,/I look’d toward Birnam, and anon, methought,/The wood began to move.”

Epilogue: Teacher's Note

Additional materials about studying the witches can be found in the Text in Performance , Language  and Context  sections.

Can I identify why the themes of power and ambition are important and pick out examples from throughout the text?

Can I explain the importance of these examples by placing them in the context of the play as a whole and the overall development of this theme?

Key words: allegiance, ambition, divine right of kings, heir, hierarchy, legitimacy, power, sovereign, status, succession, theme, tyrant

Ask students to complete a vocabulary exercise matching the following words with definitions:

power – the ability to do something or direct what others do

sovereign – a supreme ruler

heir – a person legally entitled to the property or rank of another person when that person dies

tyrant – a cruel and oppressive ruler

ambition – desire and determination to be successful

succession – the process of inheriting a title, office or property

legitimacy - lawfulness

the divine right of kings – the idea that the monarch’s right to rule comes directly from will of God

allegiance – the loyalty of a subject to his or her ruler

dynasty – a sequence of rulers from the same family

Then ask students to choose a word and write one or two sentences about Macbeth using that word. Students should share their sentences with their partners. The partner awards:

  • 1 point for correct use of the word in a sentence
  • another 1 point for using the word in reference to Macbeth , and 
  • up to another 2 points for including a short and relevant quotation

Students should use the mindmap to help them track the theme of ‘power’ in the play. Students could be divided into five groups, each taking one Act from the play. They should read through it carefully, looking for evidence before reporting back. Students could also prepare a sheet of evidence that can be made accessible to all their classmates as a revision aid. Students should aim to keep quotations short (under 10 words), and write a brief commentary about how their quotation links to the overall theme.

macbeth ambition activities

2) Exploring more deeply through drama

The following drama activities can support students’ explorations of this theme. Students could reflect on their experiences of these exercises in the Student Booklet.

  • The King says… This is basically a version of Simon Says that will help students to listen carefully and to respond physically to some but not all of the instructions. The actions could be appropriate for a king’s armies/subjects/servants, e.g. stand to attention, bow deeply, beg for forgiveness. You could even differentiate between the kinds of things ‘King Duncan says’ and the things that ‘King Macbeth says’, obeying only one and not the other and then switching.
  • Pauper to prince: Students build a cumulative freeze frame indicating relative status from pauper to prince. Encourage attention to body language, eye contact, etc. and ask each new student to think about how their pose builds on the one before it. Finally, ask students to think about how the status of the highest status actors could be undermined, e.g. pulling a face behind their backs, pretending to direct them in a play, putting a gun to their head.

Assign to groups of students the task of staging a scene where they feel this theme is crucially important, e.g. Act 1 Scene 4 or Act 5 Scene 9. Afterwards, reflect as a group and as a whole class on how well the various performances explored the themes of power and ambition and how this was achieved.

Why is power an important theme in the play?

How would I describe the development of this theme throughout the play?

How does this theme link to the other major themes in Macbeth that I have studied?

Everyone in the class picks out three key moments that they think are particularly important to bear in mind when thinking about the theme of power. Compare findings.

  • Students can read more about the theme of ambition on the Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank   Macbeth  microsite here: 2011.playingshakespeare.org/themes-and-issues/ambition
  • Students could research the ideas of the Renaissance diplomat and political theorist Niccolo Machiavelli, and compare them with some of the ideas about power and politics in Macbeth .

Additional ideas about exploring the concepts of power and status - including some rehearsal room approaches to try out - can be found within the Key Stage 3 materials .

Can I identify why the themes of family and succession are important and pick out examples from throughout the text?

Key words: descendants, divine right of kings, dynasty, family, heir, succession, theme

Display the five quotations/images connected with the themes of family and succession. (The quotations are featured in the Student Booklet.) What’s the connection?

  • “how tender ‘tis to love the babe that sucks me” quotation (Lady Macbeth)
  • “all my little chickens” quotation (Macduff)
  • picture of apparition of a child carrying a tree
  • “from his mother’s womb untimely ripp’d” quotation
  • an image of Banquo and Fleance

Draw out from students’ feedback some of the ideas and issues to help them connect the clues, such as family, children, mothers and fathers, birth, descendants, succession, the divine right of kings, blood, dynasties, the future. Students could record them in a mindmap. A key idea with this theme is for students to think about families in a political as well as personal way. You could draw parallels with the current Royal Family to illustrate this point. 

1) Tracking the theme

Students should use the mindmap to help them track the themes of ‘family and succession’ in the play. Students could be divided into five groups, each taking one Act from the play. They should read through it carefully, looking for evidence before reporting back. Students could also prepare a sheet of evidence that can be made accessible to all their classmates as a revision aid. Students should aim to keep quotations short (under 10 words), and write a brief commentary about how their quotation links to the overall theme.

macbeth ambition activities

  • Wolf and sheep: one student is the wolf, one the sheep and the rest of the class hold hands and create a protective ‘fold’, who must move as one to protect the sheep in their care
  • how the portraits would look before/during/at the end of the play
  • the number of father/son images and the relative absence of women/mothers
  • the issue of whether the Macbeths have lost a child in infancy

Assign to groups of students the task of staging a scene where they feel this theme is crucially important, e.g. Act 4 Scene 1 or Scene 2. Afterwards, reflect as a group and as a whole class on how well the various performances explored the themes of family and succession and how this was achieved.

Why are family and succession important themes in the play?

Everyone in the class picks out three key moments that they think are particularly important to bear in mind when thinking about the theme of family and heredity. Compare findings.

  • Succession was an important issue for Shakespeare’s audiences as Queen Elizabeth (a Tudor) had had no children. When she died in 1603, James VI of Scotland (a Stuart) also became James I of England. James chose Shakespeare and his fellow actors as his royal company and three years later, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth about the Scottish succession.
  • The play centres on the fortunes of Macbeth and those characters whose fortunes are directly implicated in Macbeth’s quest for power: Lady Macbeth, Duncan, Malcolm, Banquo and Macduff. Whose stories are left open-ended at the end of the play? Are there any questions that Shakespeare leaves unanswered?

For more on this theme, look for activities in the sections about Character  and Themes .

Can I identify why the themes of guilt and conscience are important and pick out examples from throughout the text?

Key words: anxiety, depression, doubt, hallucination, mental illness, mind, obsession, suicide, theme

Begin a ‘mind’map with a picture of a brain in the middle on to which the class can contribute ideas about how Shakespeare explores the way the mind works in Macbeth . Possible ideas include:

  • characters experiencing hallucinations/visions (the mind playing tricks or genuine supernatural occurrences?)
  • anxieties/doubts about turning plans into actions
  • becoming obsessive about something/craving something, etc.
  • how what we say and what we think can be very different
  • sleepwalking/insomnia
  • mental illness/depression/suicide (what does happen to Lady Macbeth?)

Students are going to track the themes of guilt and conscience throughout the play. Students could be divided into five groups, each taking one Act from the play. They should read through it carefully, looking for evidence before reporting back. Students could also prepare a sheet of evidence that can be made accessible to all their classmates as a revision aid. Students should aim to keep quotations short (under 10 words), and write a brief commentary about how their quotation links to the overall theme.

2) Exploring more deeply through creative writing

Read Act 5 Scene 1 in small groups or as a class or watch the scene in performance. Discuss what the scene reveals about Lady Macbeth’s thoughts and feelings about killing Duncan. Compare this against her thoughts and feelings earlier in the play, e.g. in Act 1 Scene 5, Act 1 Scene 7 and Act 2 Scene 2. Students should make notes in the Student Booklet, using cross-referencing to draw parallels and contrasts between this and other scenes.

Next, ask students to imagine they are either the Doctor or the Waiting Gentlewoman from Act 5 Scene 1. They have witnessed Lady Macbeth’s mental state and have heard her talk in an incriminating way about the king’s murder. Imagine what they might write in their private diaries. Think about how each character would react to her as a person and as a political figure now that they know what they do. What should they do next? Students could continue the diary to include an account of subsequent events too.

macbeth ambition activities

3) Interpreting and staging key scenes

Assign to groups of students the task of staging a scene where they feel this theme is crucially important, e.g. Act 2 Scene 1, Act 2 Scene 2, Act 3 Scene 2 or Act 4 Scene 3. Afterwards, reflect as a group and as a whole class on how well the various performances explored the themes of guilt and conscience and how this was achieved.

Why are guilt and conscience important themes in the play?

How would I describe the development of these themes throughout the play?

Everyone in the class picks out three key moments that they think are particularly important to bear in mind when thinking about the theme of the human mind and its frailties. Compare findings.

  • Draw together the evidence about Lady Macbeth’s mental condition and eventually her death from Act 5 Scenes 1, 3 and 5. What can we infer from these scenes about attitudes to and understandings of the human mind in Shakespeare’s time?

The creative writing task could be dual assessed for reading and writing.

Can I write about the themes of the play in a connected and coherent way?

Can I demonstrate confidence in my handling of abstract ideas, but continue to show that my analysis is firmly grounded in the text?

Key words: abstract, analysis, coherent, issues, mood, symbolism, themes

Students could be given an item and have a minute in pairs to prepare an explanation of how it relates to the play Macbeth . The items can be chosen at random (e.g. a ball, pencil, a coat), as the idea of this activity is that it is a fun, thinking-skills warm up to the activity that follows. 

1) Museum cabinet

Ask the class to imagine they have been asked to create a display about Macbeth for a new Shakespeare museum. They can only have five items for their display. Students should choose five items that they think convey the essence of the play, i.e. not just the plot but the play’s overall mood and the ideas and issues the play makes audiences think about. Students could be given a list to choose from, e.g. candle, crown, cauldron, sword, dagger, book about witchcraft, (fake) blood, throne, an empty cradle, tree branch, poster showing kings and queens of Scotland, a mirror. They are also welcome to add their own. Their items do not even need to be mentioned in the play; students simply need to be able to justify their reasons convincingly. As an extension task, students could write their captions for the museum with a word limit of 100 words per item.

2) Analysing themes in a passage

Choose any passage from the play (a very short scene or passage of under a hundred lines from a scene) and model:

  • rereading and refamiliarising
  • identifying the key ideas and themes that arise from close analysis of the passage
  • making connections between these ideas and themes, e.g. between the apparitions and ideas about power, the family, succession and linking to the killing of Banquo and escape of Fleance

What are the play’s key ideas, symbols and themes? Why?

How are these ideas connected in the text?

As a revision exercise, students could open their play text at random and after a few moments’ preparation they should:

  • comment on what the scene is about
  • place it in context
  • draw out some of the themes and ideas that arise from it.

Hear a few examples.

Aside: Further Resource

  • Students could use the 'Pick a card...' game as mentioned in Key Stage 3 Themes , which generates different aspects of the text in a random way. Students can challenge themselves to make connections between them! 

The following learning sequence also supports students in making connections across a substantial text - the skill of cross-referencing.

Can I make cross-references, moving backwards and forwards within the text in order to demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the whole play?

Can I put this reading skill into practice in my own essay planning and drafting?

Key words: cross-references, essay, plan, success criteria, theme

Encourage students to play a simple game that involves moving speedily around the text. Ask students (in pairs) to find, e.g.

  • the first word of Act 1 Scene 3, or
  • Macbeth’s first line in Act 5 Scene 2 , or
  • a reference to the king in Act 2 Scene 4, or
  • an adjective in Act 5 Scene 9.

​Give students a fixed amount of time (e.g. 3 minutes) to come up with as many search terms and to carry out as many successful searches as they can!

1) Making connections.

You should now develop the activity from the starter into an activity about making connections across the text. Show students on screen and also in the Student Booklet a brief extract from Act 1 Scene 7 (lines 59-83). Then:

  • model for students finding within this text a short quotation where Lady Macbeth exhorts Macbeth to take action
  • model somewhere else in the text where Lady Macbeth exhorts Macbeth to take action
  • model a clear way to demonstrate the link between the two references

Now give students more references to find from different places in the text, e.g.

  • two or more places in the text where Macbeth is indecisive
  • two or more places where Macbeth and Lady Macbeth try to appear innocent of Duncan’s death, e.g. appear shocked, blame someone else
  • two places where we learn that Scotland is a dangerous and fearful place under Macbeth’s regime

macbeth ambition activities

2) Task bank: themes and ideas

The following tasks can be used in the modelling of planning and drafting of written tasks, as well as for students’ more independently produced work for assessment:

  • To what extent do you think Macbeth is a play about the bonds that exist between family members?
  • What do you think Shakespeare is saying in Macbeth about the use and abuse of power?
  • ‘ Macbeth is a play about the battle between good and evil’. How far would you agree with this statement about the play?

How do I annotate my text to show cross-references between different parts of the text?

Why is this an important skill when writing about a substantial text? 

Students could prepare a plan in timed conditions for one of the tasks in ‘Task bank: themes and ideas’.  

  • The tasks in the question banks can be used as the basis for devising further tasks to suit the needs of your own class, curriculum and syllabus.

As homework/revision, students could attempt one or more of the writing tasks from the task bank. 

Want to download these resources and more? Log in or sign up to Teach Shakespeare.

Log in or sign up to add your own notes.

  • Science & Math
  • Sociology & Philosophy
  • Law & Politics

Ambition in Macbeth: Theme & Examples

  • Ambition in Macbeth: Theme &…

The undeniable power of unbridled ambition and its ramifications are extensively portrayed within William Shakespeare’s tragedy; Macbeth. Within this play, ambition is portrayed as a corrupting and unquenchable force through the main concepts of mental imbalance, supernatural behaviors and betrayal.

The consuming desires of Macbeth and their repercussions are vividly enhanced through the use of various expressive literary techniques. Ultimately, Macbeth is a play that explores and reiterates the tragic and pestilent nature of unreasoned aspirations.

Within the play, supernatural forces are a common occurrence and often transpire into woeful and tragic happenings, acting as a warning to viewers.

Throughout various scenes, the prophecies of the witches are quickly unraveled before the audience and are a violent driving force for the tragedies that take place. “Fair is foul, and foul is fair”, chant the witches in the opening scene, utilizing a paradox that reverses the syntactic structure and symbolizes a reversal of the logical order as well as a break in logical reason and morals.

This foreshadows the succumbing of a heroic character to the temptations of power and status. Furthermore, the impacts of unnatural evils are again echoed through Macbeth’s imagination, a factor that comes back to torture him throughout his life. In Macbeth’s famous soliloquy he murmurs, “Is this a dagger which I see before me/a dagger of the mind, a false creation”.

Within this eerie and ominous scene, Macbeth uses metaphorical imagery to express the inner conflict which he is experiencing as a result of his heinous intentions. From this quote, we also notice the inner demons that reside within Macbeth’s mind, which have caused him to become delirious and blind to the death-ridden path that eventually ends in the deaths of scores and eventually himself.

Ultimately, supernatural forces are a pivotal element within the drama that truly show the dangers associated with unbridled and unreasoned ambition.

A central concept that shapes the intricate moral lessons in Macbeth is that of betrayal and its futile and impermanent nature. Though Macbeth is reluctant at first to commit the most evil of deeds, murder, he is wholly convinced by Lady Macbeth, a driving force of betrayal within the play.

Lady Macbeth utters “Letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would,’/ like the poor cat i’ the adage?” The willingness of Lady Macbeth to reach the epitome of betrayal is displayed through the use of a simile that heightens our understanding of the overpowering and strong nature of Lady Macbeth as well as her deep and murderous desires she wishes to impose on her husband.

From this, viewers are exposed to the persuasive and emotive techniques Lady Macbeth utilizes to manipulate and drive Macbeth to commit the treasonous act. Moreover, the dangers associated with the pursuit of an unrestrained dream and the hollowness of power are again reiterated by Lady Macbeth; “Look like thy innocent flower but be the serpent under it.

Through the use of metaphorical imagery, Lady Macbeth’s untamed ambition transpires into evil as the dream of being royalty proves too tempting to ignore. Lady Macbeth encourages Macbeth to hide his true immoral intentions of killing the king and refers to the biblical story of Eden when referring to the serpent, a rather ironic connection for a sinful act.

By comparing Macbeth to a serpent, viewers are exposed to the sinister and sly nature of his behavior and his lust for power, regardless of the price. Ultimately, Macbeth’s willingness to betray and deceit highlights the unquenchable nature of ambition and cautions viewers of the ultimate price of aspiration fueled trickery; a humiliating life, and death.

Throughout the entirety of the drama, the guilt and mental ramifications of deceit, murder, and evil deeds are continuously restated and act as a warning to viewers of the jeopardies of untamed desires. After the treasonous act of killing the king, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth pay a great mental toll as the noxious nature of their acts catch up to them.

Macbeth murmurs,” Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/clean from my hand?” This reiterates the dominant motif of blood, to symbolize the stain of guilt that has tainted and scarred Macbeth emotionally and mentally. This motif also reflects the agonizing regret which Macbeth feels directly after the treacherous act that disrupts the natural balance of power in this strongly catholic context.

Furthermore, the implications of wild ambition and of committing a major sinful deed are again magnified; “Macbeth does murder sleep, the innocent sleep, sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleeve of care”. In the process of Macbeth’s downward spiral into insanity after his murderous deed, Macbeth is tortured by his actions through his restless state of mind and this has been shown through the motif of sleep.

This demonstrates to the viewer, nature’s enforcement of justice, especially in this strongly catholic context. From this, we can derive that through Macbeth’s woes, viewers are cautioned of the implications of unrealistic, unreasoned, and deceitful power and ambition.

Within William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the detrimental ramifications which transpire from unreasoned ambition are thoroughly discussed and are used as a warning to viewers.

Throughout the drama, the forces of supernatural evils and their effect on rational reason, the futility, and pointlessness of betrayal, and the mental impact of upsetting the natural order are reiterated.

These are vividly portrayed through the use of various literary techniques such as irony, metaphors, and symbolism. Consequently, Macbeth is an ancient play about the dangers of untamed ambition that still carries its warnings to this day.

Related Posts

  • Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth: Manipulation & Ruthlessness
  • Corruption in Macbeth
  • Understanding Theme
  • Lady Macbeth: Character Analysis
  • Ambition in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Author:  William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)

Tutor and Freelance Writer. Science Teacher and Lover of Essays. Article last reviewed: 2022 | St. Rosemary Institution © 2010-2023 | Creative Commons 4.0

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Post comment

Understanding Macbeth's Ambition

An Analysis of Ambition in Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'

  • Shakespeare's Life and World
  • Best Sellers
  • Classic Literature
  • Plays & Drama
  • Short Stories
  • Children's Books
  • M.A., Theater Studies, Warwick University
  • B.A., Drama and English, DeMontfort University

Ambition is the driving force of William Shakespeare's tragedy " Macbeth ." More specifically, it is about ambition that goes unchecked by any concept of morality; this is why it becomes a dangerous quality. Macbeth’s ambition inspires most of his actions, and that results in the deaths of numerous characters and the ultimate downfall of both himself and Lady Macbeth.

The Sources of Ambition in 'Macbeth'

Macbeth’s ambition is driven by a number of factors. For one, he has a deep internal desire for power and advancement. However, that is not exactly why he turns to crime. It takes two outside forces to ignite this hunger and push him to take violent action to obtain power.

  • Prophecies: Throughout the play, the Macbeth witches make a number of prophecies, including that Macbeth will become king. Macbeth believes them each time, and often uses the predictions to decide his next actions, such as killing Banquo. While the prophecies always turn out to be true, it is unclear whether they are preordained instances of fate or self-fulfilling via the manipulation of characters like Macbeth.
  • Lady Macbeth : The witches may have planted the initial seed in Macbeth’s mind to act on his ambition, but his wife is the one who pushes him to murder. Lady Macbeth’s persistence encourages Macbeth to put aside his guilt and kill Duncan, telling him to focus on his ambition, not his conscience.

Controlling Ambition

Macbeth’s ambition soon spirals out of control and forces him to murder again and again to cover up his previous wrongdoings. His first victims of this are the chamberlains who are framed by Macbeth for the murder of King Duncan and killed as “punishment.”

Later in the play, Macbeth’s fear of Macduff incites him to pursue not only Macduff but also his family. The unnecessary murder of Lady Macduff and her children are the clearest example of Macbeth losing control over his ambition.

Balancing Ambition and Morality

We also see a more honorable take on ambition in "Macbeth." To test Macduff’s loyalty, Malcolm pretends to be greedy, lustful, and power-hungry. When Macduff responds by condemning him and crying out for the future of Scotland under such a king, he shows his allegiance to the country and refusal to submit to tyrants. This reaction from Macduff, along with Malcolm's choosing to test him in the first place, demonstrates that moral code in positions of power is more important than the ambition to get there, especially blind ambition.

Consequences

The consequences of ambition in “Macbeth” are dire—not only are a number of innocent people killed, but Macbeth’s life also ends with him being known as a tyrant, a significant downfall from the noble hero he begins as.

Most importantly, Shakespeare gives neither Macbeth nor Lady Macbeth the opportunity to enjoy what they have gained—perhaps suggesting that it is more satisfying to achieve your goals fairly than acquire them through corruption.

Does Violent Ambition End With Macbeth?

At the end of the play, Malcolm is the victorious king and Macbeth’s burning ambition has been extinguished. But is this really the end to over-reaching ambition in Scotland? The audience is left to wonder if Banquo’s heir will eventually become king as prophesied by the trio of witches. If so, will he act on his own ambition to make this happen, or will fate play a part in realizing the prophecy?

  • Macbeth Character Analysis
  • Famous Quotes From 'Macbeth'
  • Why the 'Macbeth' Witches Are Key to Shakespeare's Play
  • The Theme of Guilt in "Macbeth"
  • Everything You Need to Know About 'Macbeth'
  • Lady Macbeth Character Analysis
  • 'Macbeth' Overview
  • 'Macbeth' Characters
  • 'Macbeth': Themes and Symbols
  • 'Macbeth' Summary
  • Top 5 Female Villains in Shakespeare Plays
  • Shakespeare Tragedies: 10 Plays With Common Features
  • 7 Types of Female Characters in Shakespeare's Plays
  • William Shakespeare's Most Famous Plays
  • The Top 6 Famous Shakespeare Characters
  • Regan and Goneril Character Profile
  • International
  • Schools directory
  • Resources Jobs Schools directory News Search

The theme of ambition in Macbeth

The theme of ambition in Macbeth

Subject: English

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Lesson (complete)

bethanyscreech

Last updated

19 December 2021

  • Share through email
  • Share through twitter
  • Share through linkedin
  • Share through facebook
  • Share through pinterest

macbeth ambition activities

Powerpoint lesson based around the theme of ambition in Shakespeare. There’s a list of key quotes for students to discuss and think about. Analysis of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Banquo and Mcduff with their relationship with ambition. There’s also an edexcel exam style question with an example paragraph for students to look at.

Tes paid licence How can I reuse this?

Get this resource as part of a bundle and save up to 33%

A bundle is a package of resources grouped together to teach a particular topic, or a series of lessons, in one place.

Macbeth revision material

A variety of quote analysis, lesson material and context information about the play of Macbeth, includes content on: Lady Macbeth, Banquo, ambition and the Divine Right of Kings

Your rating is required to reflect your happiness.

It's good to leave some feedback.

Something went wrong, please try again later.

This resource hasn't been reviewed yet

To ensure quality for our reviews, only customers who have purchased this resource can review it

Report this resource to let us know if it violates our terms and conditions. Our customer service team will review your report and will be in touch.

Not quite what you were looking for? Search by keyword to find the right resource:

No Sweat Shakespeare

Macbeth Ambition Quotes

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:

“My thought, whose murder yet is but fantastical, Shakes so my single state of man that function Is smother’d in surmise.” (Act 1, Scene 3)

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:

“Why do I yield to that suggestion Whose horrid images doth unfix my hair, And make my seated heart knock at my ribs, Against the use of nature?” (Act 1, Scene 3)

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:

“Two truths are told As happy prologues to the swelling act Of th’imperial theme” (Act 1, Scene 3)

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 Prince of Cumberland! That is a step On which I must fall down, or else o’erleap, For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.” (Act 1, Scene 4)

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:

“Yet do I fear thy nature It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it.” (Act 1, Scene 5)

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:

“Hie thee hither, That I may pour my spirits in thine ear And chastise with the valor of my tongue All that impedes thee from the golden round.” (Act 1, Scene 5)

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:

“I have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o’erleaps itself And falls on th’other” (Act 1, Scene 5)

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?

“‘Gainst nature still! Thriftless ambition, that will ravin up Thine own lives’ means! Then ‘tis most like The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.” (Act 2, Scene 4)

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:

“To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus” (Act 3, Scene 1)

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:

“For mine own good All causes shall give way. I am in blood Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er.” (Act 3, Scene 4)

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:

“Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty deaths. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” (Act 5, Scene 5)

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:

“Either thou, Macbeth, Or else my sword, with an unbattered edge, I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be; By this great clatter, one of greatest note Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune, And more I beg not. “ (Act 5, Scene 6)

Macbeth quote image for pinterest on dusky purple background

Read Mabeth quotes in modern English :

  • Is this a dagger which I see before me?
  • If it were done when ’tis done
  • The raven himself is hoarse
  • Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow

Shakespeare Quotes by Play

Hamlet Quotes | Henry V Quotes | Julius Caesar Quotes | King Lear Quotes | Macbeth Quotes | A Midsummer Night’s Dream Quotes | Much Ado About Nothing Quotes | Othello Quotes | Romeo and Juliet Quotes | The Tempest Quotes | Twelfth Night Quotes

See All Macbeth Resources

Macbeth | Macbeth summary | Macbeth characters : Banquo , Lady Macbeth , Macbeth , Macduff , Three Witches | Macbeth settings | Modern Macbeth translation  | Macbeth full text | Macbeth PDF  |  Modern Macbeth ebook | Macbeth for kids ebooks | Macbeth quotes | Macbeth ambition quotes |  Macbeth quote translations | Macbeth monologues | Macbeth soliloquies | Macbeth movies | Macbeth themes

  • WhatsApp 11
  • Pinterest 0

Leave a Reply

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

follow on facebook

Resources you can trust

Macbeth  is a popular choice as a KS3 Shakespeare play, with its appealing supernatural setting and accessible themes of violence, betrayal and ambition. You'll find a dedicated selection of resources suited to KS3 learners in our collection. 

If you are looking for more challenge and a comprehensive set of lesson ideas, try our GCSE teaching packs,  Macbeth and Revising Macbeth . 

  • (-) Show all (402)
  • English (400)
  • All key stages (598)
  • (-) KS3 (400)
  • All global tags (2364)
  • (-) Macbeth (400)
  • William Shakespeare (396)
  • Macbeth (394)
  • Tragedy (386)
  • Pre-1900 (378)
  • William Shakespeare (360)
  • Lady Macbeth (18)
  • The witches (6)
  • The Witches (6)
  • Heritage (2)
  • Mercutio (2)
  • Owen Sheers (2)
  • R.C. Sheriff (2)

Resource type

  • Worksheet (330)
  • Complete lesson (82)
  • Revision (48)
  • Teaching ideas (48)
  • Starter/Plenary (38)
  • Student activity (34)
  • Role play/debate/discussion (32)
  • Game/quiz (28)
  • Differentiated (20)
  • Exam preparation (12)
  • Assessment (8)
  • Templates (8)
  • Lesson plan (4)
  • Homework (2)
  • Scheme of work (2)
  • Self-assessment (2)

Search results

Teach with Movies

  • FOR TEACHERS
  • FOR PARENTS
  • FOR HOME SCHOOL
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • SOCIAL MEDIA
  • DMCA COMPLIANCE
  • GRATUITOUS VIOLENCE
  • MOVIES IN THE CLASSROOM
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • U.S. HISTORY
  • WORLD HISTORY
  • SUBJECT MATTER
  • APPROPRIATE AGE LEVEL
  • MORAL/ETHICAL EMPHASIS

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING

  • SNIPPETS & SHORT SUBJECTS
  • MOVIES BY THE CALENDAR
  • DOCUMENTARIES & NON-FICTION
  • TALKING AND PLAYING WITH MOVIES: AGES 3-8
  • TWM’S BEST TEACHING FILMS
  • TALKING AND PLAYING WITH MOVIES
  • SET-UP-THE-SUB
  • ARTICLES & STUDENT HANDOUTS
  • MOVIE PERMISSION SLIP
  • MOVIE & TELEVISION WORKSHEETS
  • MATHEMATICS
  • EARTH SCIENCE
  • ANY FILM THAT IS A WORK OF FICTION
  • FILM ADAPTATIONS OF NOVELS, SHORT STORIES, OR PLAYS
  • ANY FILM THAT IS A DOCUMENTARY
  • ANY FILM THAT EXPLORES ETHICAL ISSUES
  • ADAPTATION OF A NOVEL
  • DOCUMENTARIES
  • HERO’S JOURNEY
  • SCIENCE FICTION
  • WORK OF FICTION
  • WORK OF HISTORICAL FICTION
  • PERSUASIVE DOCUMENTARY
  • FICTION (SOAPS, DRAMAS, AND REALITY/SURVIVAL SHOW)
  • HISTORICAL FICTION
  • INFORMATIONAL DOCUMENTARY
  • NEWS AND CURRENT EVENTS
  • SEARCH [Custom]

macbeth ambition activities

SUBJECTS — Drama; Literature/Literary/Devices: characterization;

SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING — Ambition; Work/Career;

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS — Responsibility; Citizenship.

There are several versions of Macbeth on film. TWM recommends the 1979 BBC television release entitled “A Performance of Macbeth”. Set on a simple stage, this movie largely duplicates the experience of seeing the play. The performances by McKellen and Dench are riveting and help students understand the complex issues raised by Shakespeare’s play.

14+; The 1979 BBC version has not been rated by the MPAA but, according to the Internet Movie Database, the film was rated PG by the UK and Australian classification organizations; Drama; 93 minutes; black and white; Available from Amazon.com .

Note to Teachers: In the section entitled Beyond Macbeth, TWM shows how to maximize the relevance of Macbeth to the lives and interests of teenagers. To get the most from this Learning Guide, read that section first.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Benefits of the Movie Possible Problems Parenting Points Selected Awards & Cast

Using the Movie in the Classroom Discussion Questions Social-Emotional Learning

Moral-Ethical Emphasis Assignments and Projects Bridges to Reading

MOVIE WORKSHEETS & STUDENT HANDOUTS

TWM offers the following worksheets to keep students’ minds on the movie and direct them to the lessons that can be learned from the film.

Film Study Worksheet for ELA Classes and

Worksheet for Cinematic and Theatrical Elements and Their Effects .

Teachers can modify the worksheets to fit the needs of each class. See also TWM’s Movies as Literature Homework Project .

DESCRIPTION

This play is Shakespeare’s tragedy of the rise and fall of two people corrupted by power and ambition.

SELECTED AWARDS & CAST

Selected Awards:

1980 British Academy Awards Nominations: Best Actress (Judi Dench); Best Television Cameraman; Best Television Lighting.

Featured Actors:

Ian McKellen as Macbeth; Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth; John Bown as Lennox; Susan Dury as 3rd Witch and Lady Macduff; Judith Harte as 2nd Witch and Gentlewoman; Greg Hicks as Donalbain and Seyton; David Howey as Sergeant and 1st Murderer / Doctor; Griffith Jones as Duncan; Marie Kean as 1st Witch; Ian McDiarmid as The Porter and Ross; Bob Peck as Macduff; Duncan Preston as Angus; Roger Rees as Malcolm; Zak Taylor as Fleance and Messenger; and Stephen Warner as Young Macduff.

Phillip Casson.

BENEFITS OF THE MOVIE

Showing a film version of the play, either before or after reading the text, will enhance students’ understanding of both the art and the content of Macbeth.

POSSIBLE PROBLEMS

None for “A Performance of Macbeth”. The 1971 version directed by Roman Polanski contains gratuitous violence and is rated R by the MPAA.

PARENTING POINTS

Should your child be reading Macbeth in a class in which the teacher does not intend to show a film production of the play, take the time to watch the film with him or her. It will not interfere with the assigned reading and will help your child access what is very often difficult language and imagery.

USING THE MOVIE IN THE CLASSROOM

macbeth ambition activities

USING “A PERFORMANCE OF MACBETH” IN THE CLASSROOM

INTO MACBETH

Prefatory Note: Teachers who assign Shakespeare’s plays have a myriad of intentions, methods, and assignments with which they work. Some are focused on drama, some on historical perspectives and some on the aesthetic qualities of Shakespeare’s contribution to the literary canon. This Guide helps teachers enhance student empathy with the characters and understanding of the play’s thematic topics. It is suggested that teachers looking to supplement classes on Shakespeare’s style and thematic structure review “ Looking for Richard “, Al Pacino’s study of how he and his fellow actors created a performance of Shakespeare’s Richard III.

The first step in helping students understand the interplay of the characters in Macbeth is to sensitize students to some of the nuances of acting. To start this process, use TWM’s Snippet Lesson Plan entitled Introduction to Acting in Shakespearean Plays using “Stage Beauty” .

Sometimes Shakespeare is difficult for young people because of vocabulary. The following words are important in understanding Macbeth but are also helpful in developing the word recognition needed to access college-level reading. Students should be asked to define these words prior to seeing the film and to note when they occur in the dialogue. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in “A Performance of Macbeth”. Teachers should use whichever style has served their students best in teaching vocabulary.

brandishl rapt; chastise; impede; recompense; repose; pirate; palpable; surfeit; consort; verity; sundry; jocund; blanch; malevolence; abjure; pernicious; sear; judicious; redress; perturbation; upbraid; tarry; clamorous; abhor; and prowess

As in the brief skits suggested in TWM’s Introduction to Acting in Shakespearean Plays using “Stage Beauty” , character and interaction is everything in Macbeth. Before watching the movie, tell students to look carefully at the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The themes in the play are derived almost entirely from these two characters and the interplay between them. Tell students to pay special attention to what happens and what is said when the two interact without others on the stage and when they recite their monologues.

Before showing the film, also point out that the physical movements and facial expressions of the actors are essential elements of Shakespearian plays. Have students note how the actors communicate feeling, even to the raising of an eyebrow. At appropriate points in the performance, turn the sound off and replay favorite monologues or scenes. Ask the class what is communicated through facial expression and body language, rather than through the words being spoken. In “A Performance of Macbeth”, the acting of McKellen and Dench, as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, are so strong that students will easily identify the feelings being communicated. The faces and body movement of the three witches help emphasize this point, as does the fine performance of the actor playing The Porter.

Thematic Topics in Macbeth

  • Resistance or acquiescence to temptation;
  • Attitudes toward evil;
  • Attitudes toward danger;
  • Pursuit of illusions;
  • The risks of ambition;
  • Self-doubt;
  • Relationship with sleep;
  • Hopelessness; and
  • Belief in the supernatural;

THROUGH MACBETH

As the film is played, take a five-minute break every fifteen minutes or so to allow students to make brief notes on lines or incidents that illustrate any of the thematic topics of the play.

Once the film has been seen and notes taken, students will be able to compare and contrast Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in terms of each of the above categories and they will be able to comment on the craft of acting in communicating the ideas presented by the play. The treatment of sleep is a good example. Macbeth says he has murdered sleep and it is clear that his guilt and self doubt make it impossible for him to get a good night’s sleep. Lady Macbeth is seen sleep-walking, a more aggressive and active symptom of the same sleeplessness that Macbeth faces. Students may determine that Macbeth is the more passive player in the quest for power that begins with the murder of Duncan and that Lady Macbeth works harder to bring the events about, thus the different styles of sleep disorder. The acting, during each bit of dialogue and monologue dealing with sleep convincingly, shows the fatigue and strain associated with sleeplessness.

Students can be divided into groups of three or four to share their notes and help one another with suggestions and details. After about 15 to 30 minutes of group work, select students from each group to share with the class any of the attitudes, values or characteristics that they feel are important in understanding Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The interchange between students should prepare them for the following discussions and assignments.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Shakespeare gave no stage direction relating to the witches. What is learned about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth through their reactions to the witches and their prophecy?

Suggested Response:

Macbeth reacts with surprise to the witches, but not in fear. He says, “So foul and fair a day,” words that echo the words of the witches, “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” This makes a connection between the evil of the witches and the foreshadowed evil of Macbeth. When Lady Macbeth learns of her husband’s encounter with the witches, she is inspired by their prophecy and urges her husband to believe them, and thus she sides with the forces of evil.

2. What evidence supports the belief that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth love each other?

Aside from the affection expressed in the acting, it is evident that genuine love exists between these ambitions and doomed characters. Macbeth addresses his wife as “my dearest love” and she shows herself willing to promote great evil in order to help her husband achieve what they both feel to be his destiny. She is soothing and helpful after Macbeth has killed Duncan.

3. As the play progresses, both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth begin to feel guilty for what they have done. How do their behaviors differ in response to this guilt?

They both begin to lose their grip on reality. Lady Macbeth falls into despair so deep that she cannot sleep and eventually kills herself; Macbeth, numbed emotionally, is also consumed by guilt and despair, made evident by his soliloquy, “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,” yet he continues on his evil course until his death.

4. What challenges to Macbeth’s manhood and Lady Macbeth’s womanliness are made apparent in the play?

Lady Macbeth often chides her husband to man up, saying that he is afraid and cowardly. She asks him: “Wouldst thou have that thou esteem’st the ornament of life, and live a coward in thine own esteem, letting ‘I dare not’ wait upon ‘I would . . . .'” Later she says that when Macbeth had introduced the idea of gaining the throne, “then you were a man…” She tells him ” . . . But screw your courage to the sticking place. . . .” in order to psych him up to the task of murder which she has outlined. She also says she would kill her own children rather than go back on a promise as Macbeth seems to be doing. As for Lady Macbeth, her husband tells her to “Bring forth men-children only; for thy undaunted mettle should compose nothing but males.” Apparently, at this place in the film, which in the play occurs at the end of the first act, Lady Macbeth is the man of the house. In Act 1, Scene 5, she prays to the spirits of evil to “unsex me here, and fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full of direct cruelty.”

5. What characteristics of honor or morality or even self-preservation may have turned this ambitious couple from their doomed course?

Answers will vary. Ask the students if their suggestions fit into the way both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth have been characterized and as such whether they are at all possible. Macbeth seems to be more sensitive and introspective than the ambitious and proactive Lady Macbeth. “Vaulting ambition” had each of them in its grip. They both seem revolted by the murders and by the end of the play they have been virtually consumed by guilt. It may be difficult to find characteristics, other than the love the Macbeth’s feel for each other, to turn them from their doomed direction.

Ambition and Work/Career

See the questions and assignments in Beyond Macbeth.

MORAL-ETHICAL EMPHASIS (CHARACTER COUNTS)

Discussion Questions Relating to Ethical Issues will facilitate the use of this film to teach ethical principles and critical viewing. Additional questions are set out below.

RESPONSIBILITY

(Do what you are supposed to do; Persevere: keep on trying!; Always do your best; Use self-control; Be self-disciplined; Think before you act — consider the consequences; Be accountable for your choices)

CITIZENSHIP

(Do your share to make your school and community better; Cooperate; Stay informed; vote; Be a good neighbor; Obey laws and rules; Respect authority; Protect the environment)

ASSIGNMENTS, PROJECTS & ACTIVITIES

Informal assessments can be made by checking the quality of notes and by paying close attention to the level of participation achieved by each student.

Formal assessments can be derived from the following essay prompts:

1. Write a formal essay on the manner by which Lady Macbeth chides her husband to murder. Use what she says as well as her manner of presenting her arguments to Macbeth that embolden him to act.

2. Write a formal essay in which you describe the feelings Lady Macbeth and Macbeth express about one another and illustrate how these feelings change as the play progresses.

3. Compare and contrast attitudes toward murder, fear and courage expressed by Lady Macbeth and Macbeth. Support your assertions with direct reference to the film.

4. Write an opinion piece in which you argue whether or not Macbeth could have carried out the crimes he committed without the support of Lady Macbeth. Consider which of the two characters is the stronger.

5. Write a dialogue that might be probable given the context of circumstances in which one or the other, Macbeth or Lady Macbeth, change their minds and stop the ambitious slide toward criminality.

6. Write an opinion piece in support of your position on the love that Lady Macbeth and Macbeth share. Consider whether this relationship is based on love and mutual respect or on ambition and the desire for power.

7. Write a critique of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth in terms of the values that they seem to lack.

8. Write an evaluation of how staging and lighting emphasize the characteristics of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.

9. Discuss the use of blood, daggers and witches as they affect both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and lead toward changes in their attitudes and feelings.

Beyond Macbeth

Since ambition and guilt are the factors that lead Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to doom, it is important that students fully understand these two aspects of character and the profound effects they may have on their own lives.

Ambition: Pose the following questions to the class: Is a basketball player who loves the game and plays for both the thrill of the sport and the fun of competition more enjoyable to watch, or more popular among the fans, than the player who seems to care most about his or her statistics and salary? Would a patient prefer a sugeon who had a natural drive to be a healer over one who desired the status in society of being a doctor? Would a voter prefer a candidate whose desire for public office was based upon the benefits to society that the person holding that office could bring over a candidate who sought the office merely to increase his or her own power? Or, is it true that in each of the examples given, the individual will usually have, in varying degrees, both sets of desires: that a great basketball player will want to play ball and will care to some extent about stats and salary; that a doctor interested in healing will also be concerned with power and status in society; that a candidate for political office will in varying degrees enjoy exercising the power of the office and also doing what is required to better society.

Students should be encouraged to reflect upon the origin and effects of ambition as they read literature and watch films. Students can answer the following questions in class discussion or in essays:

(1) How should society deal with its citizens who are ambitious?

(2) How should each person deal with his or her own ambitions?

The following points should be covered in any discussion or essay.

As to the first question, societies that prosper are those that learn to harness the ambitions of their citizens to the public good and to control ambition so that any harm to society caused by ambition is limited.

As to the second question, the same is true on a personal basis, ambition to do something good leads to satisfaction; ambition, solely for the sake of power, status, or money, leads to a success that is hollow and unsatisfying; the Macbeths are a case in point.

Guilt: Guilt is an important characteristic about which Shakespeare has much to say in Macbeth. It is a human feeling well known to young people and is a part of how they interact in their relationships; they know well how to “guilt trip” one another and often accuse parents and teachers of “guilt tripping” them. Students should be encouraged to reflect on the social power of guilt to achieve conformity and on how it may be a considerable force in their own lives. Might any of them select a college or a career out of feelings of guilt in regards to the desires of their parents? Do any of them remain in relationships out of feelings of guilt about hurting a friend? To avoid the pitfalls of guilt, an individual must be clear about his or her personal values before choices are made that may be motivated by guilt or that could possibly engender guilt later on. They must learn the difference between guilt and regret and, most importantly, they need to learn how to overcome guilt once they fall into its grip. They should be encouraged to reflect on how the fear of feeling guilty can put people in touch with their own core values and prevent actions that people will regret later on. Students can find the power of guilt in their own lives, in the lives of those around them, and in literature and film. They should be encouraged to think about guilt as a forceful human characteristic. Suggested essay topics are:

(1) describe a circumstance in which guilt played a role in an important decision made by you or by someone that you know; did guilt help that person make the decision that was right for him or her; and

(2) describe a situation in which a person made an important decision and felt guilty about it later; describing what the consequences were of that guilty feeling.

BRIDGES TO READING

It’s always a good idea for students to read the original text of the play, so long as they are skilled enough or given sufficient support to understand Shakespeare’s language and imagery.

This Learning Guide was written by Mary RedClay with assistance from James Frieden .

It was published on December 31, 2009.

Writing Explained

Macbeth Themes – Meaning and Main Ideas

Home » Literature Explained – Literary Synopses and Book Summaries » Macbeth – William Shakespeare » Macbeth Themes – Meaning and Main Ideas

Main Theme of Macbeth – Introduction

Macbeth is set in northern Scotland in the 11th Century. This part of Scotland is known for being dark, rainy, damp, and cold. All of these features of the setting contribute to the gloomy and fearful mood of the play. The play opens as the Three Witches meet during a storm, which enhances the sense that some evil and/or deception is at play before the main characters and plot are even introduced.

This violent and depressing weather of dreary northern Scotland plays in with the story’s motifs. These motifs help to reinforce the overall themes of the play. First, the motif of violence ties directly in with the weather. For example, when King Duncan is murdered, an unrelenting storm rages on throughout the night. The weather tends to mirror the violent action of the play and enhances the sense of disorder and chaos that the characters go through. Another motif is that of prophecy. The Three Witches prophesize that Macbeth will become king of Scotland among other things. Almost all of their prophecies come true but the mystery that is emphasized with the gloomy and foggy weather holds with the prophecies as well—were they really destined to be through some metaphysical workings? Or were they simply self-fulfilling? A final notable motif is hallucinations. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth become consumed with guilt as their environment becomes more and more unstable and they cause more and more crimes and killings to be carried out. They hallucinate as a result of their guilt and see many eerie spectral images that refuse to let them have any peace. Everything in this play works together to create an unsettled atmosphere that contributes to the madness of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth and subsequently their total demise.

Themes in Macbeth

Here’s a list of major themes in Macbeth .

The Destruction of Unchecked Power

  • Masculinity

Theme of Ambition

macbeth themes ambition

Theme of Masculinity

How easily masculinity can lend itself to cruelty – Gender is a frequently occurring issue in Macbeth. Lady Macbeth tends to be seen as a character who subverts gender norms because she influences and controls her husband. Her power and ambition lead her to manipulate her husband to do as she wishes. It is implied that she uses her sexual influence over him in order to maintain power. However, masculine traits are an inherent part of Macbeth’s characters as well. In a similar way that Lady Macbeth goads her husband into action, Macbeth questions the manhood of the killers that he has hired to murder Banquo and his sons. He does this to prompt them to take the most effective method of action that they can—to not fail. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth uphold masculinity as a way to manipulate and get what they want. Both fail to consider the effects that this has on people around them. Ultimately, it can be seen that any time masculinity is flexed as a tool, violence and chaos follow. It is important to note that damaging masculinity is not only seen in male characters. In fact, Lady Macbeth is not the only character who uses her masculine side as a tool. The Witches and the goddess Hecate do this as well by summoning their power to direct chaotic energy upon people’s lives. Another case of masculinity being tied to violence is when Macduff finds out that Macbeth has murdered his wife and child. Instead of mourning, he vows to get revenge upon Macbeth.

Theme of Guilt

macbeth theme of guilt

macbeth ambition activities

Was Macbeth Ambitious?

Is macbeth shakespeare’s most misunderstood character.

According to the most common interpretation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the character of Macbeth was driven to kill King Duncan because he was ambitious for the throne. This essay argues that Macbeth can’t really be considered ambitious since he repeatedly said that he didn’t want to kill the king; he’d never previously thought of being king, which makes the idea of him being ambitious for the throne a little far-fetched; he had no involvement in – and in fact actively objected to – the development of the plan to kill the king; and had previously been presented as a happy and loyal subject of the king, who saw the idea of killing the king as being abhorrent to his personal nature, hiss instincts as a man, and, in fact nature itself. In light of this, it seems unrealistic to imagine that Shakespeare actually wanted to present him as being someone who was driven by powerful ambition.

To explain why he did kill Duncan, the essay proposes that the witches in the play were supposed to be real witches, and that Macbeth was under the control of a magic spell when he killed Duncan. Under this interpretation, the play is actually a quite misogynistic warning against the involvement of women in decisions of power. This makes even more sense when you bear in mind that it was written to appeal to King James I, who was a noted misogynist, who believed in the corrupting power of witches.

Was Macbeth ambitious?

As a n argument, there is no smoking gun here . I t’s more death by a thousand cuts. Each of the following paragraphs outlines another point until, by the end, as the evidence piles up, you have a very convincing argument that he was not being presented as ambitious at all.

It’s often good to begin with something structural, as it’s always worth remembering that a writer starts out with an empty page and chooses to begin the action somewhere. Here, Shakespeare begins with Macbeth’s involvement in a battle that defends King Duncan’s kingdom against the Norwegians. (The play itself starts with the witches, but the action that first establishes the character of Macbeth is him defending Duncan’s kingdom against invaders.) Surely the only reason for starting the play here was to establish Macbeth as a loyal servant of the king. Shakespeare could have established Macbeth’s character anywhere, doing anything, and if he wanted to show that Macbeth was ambitious I imagine he would have found a better way of establishing this than showing how dedicated he was to Duncan. Surely this opening establishes him being loyal to the king, not the other way around.

During this opening section, the sergeant says that Macbeth fights while “disdaining fortune.” This means that he doesn’t seek “fortune” – suggesting riches, or reward; but it also suggests fortune-telling, or mysticism. So this line suggests that he disdains both riches and mysticism. But if we are to assume that the witches’ ‘prophecy’ led him to kill the king in pursuit of his own ambition, then we have to assume that he actually followed both. Here, you cou ld argue that the line was simply a piece of poor characterisation, but given the fact that other, more fitting arguments are available, we don't have to accept this.

In Act 1 Scene 3 , Macbeth meets the witches who ‘prophesise’ that he will be king. After he hears what the witches have to say Macbeth says that being king “stands not within the prospect of belief.” Though these could be the words of an ambitious man, saying something isn't within the scope of belief isn't very ambitious . And not long after that he says “If chance will have me crowned why then chance can crown me, without my stir.” Or in other words: “If it’s gonna happen then I guess it will, but I’m not doing anything about it.” Given the fact that this was really the Shakespearean equivalent of “meh,” I reall y can’t see the se as being the words of an ambitious man. And remember that Macbeth had enough drive and energy to fight the Norwegians almost single-handedly, but apparently can’t be bothered to do what he secretly wants more than anything else. The whole thing just feels like a stretch.

Some people argue that his wife says he’s ambitious, though what she actually says is that he’s “not without ambition” – which is a bit like saying that the new player you’ve sent to the team “isn’t not good at football.” Lady Macbeth says that her husband is not without ambition but… he clearly doesn’t have that much – and certainly not enough to make it worthy of a Shakespearean hamartia!

One of the most famous lines quoted by those suggesting he was ambitious comes at the end of his soliloquy in A1 S7. During the speech Macbeth lists reasons why he doesn’t want to kill Duncan and ends saying that that he has no “spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition which doth o’erleap itself and fall on the other.” So here, at least, is an admission that ambition is his driving force. But let’s take another look at the speech:

During the soliloquy Macbeth explains three very significant reasons why he doesn’t want to kill Duncan: that evil deeds always “return to plague th’inventor;” that as the King’s “kinsman,” “subject” and “host” Macbeth should “against the murderer shut the door, and not carry the knife myself;” and that, in fact, Duncan is such an astonishing King that even the Angels would rage against his murder.

The speech goes on for almost 30 lines, of which the last three talk about his ambition – that’s 10%. Most English teachers I’ve spoken to argue that Macbeth is exploring his doubts here. However, if I spoke to a friend of mine who talked for ten minutes, and spent nine of them explaining the reasons he didn’t want to do something, and only one saying why he did, I’d probably leave wondering whether or not they really wanted to do what they were suggesting.

And let’s look at that key line in context: “I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but only vaulting ambition which doth o’erleap itself and fall on the other.”

“I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent but only…” doesn’t mean this is why I want to do it!! It means I can’t think of a single reason for doing this except… It's him trying to work out why he wants to do something that he’s previously never thought of before - it's h im admitting something, which I'll come to in a minute, which is that MACBETH HAS NO MOTIVE outside "ambition," which isn't actually a motive in itself it's just you repeating the fact that you want something - but I'll come back to that .

“doth o’erleap itself and fall on the other” is a clear recognition that the thing he’s talking about will go wrong. He knows that his ambition will go too far, and then collapse. In many ways, it would seem that Macbeth's inability to do anything about problems even he can foresee is a bigger character flaw than his ambition, or lack-thereof.

But it's important to understand that in this line - so often cited by teachers as a beacon for Macbeth's ambition - he’s not saying that his ambition his motivation, he's saying that he can't think of any reason to do this thing except ambition.

Which leads me to a very important point: ambition is the desire for something, but it is NOT a reason behind the desire. This seems subtle but is actually very important. To be ambitious for something means you want it, but it’s a not a reason for wanting it. So, in this speech Macbeth lists reasons for not killing Duncan and then says that the only reason for wanting to do it is wanting it itself. This might seem satisfactory to some people, but it’s a woefully shallow character who behaves like this, and a poor playwright who tries to get away with ambition alone as a motive. If I was to write a play about Trump I'd write about his desire to be loved, his desire to be right all the time, his narcissism; if I was to write about Hitler I'd write about his desire to see the success of the Aryan race; if I was to write about Musk or Bezos or Jobs I'd write about their desire to make toys and create wonders; and yet here, we have the world's greatest playwright, creating a character whose desire to be king is just because he's ambitious for it. I pray the world is wrong about Macbeth, because if they're not then this is one of the most poorly drawn characters in the history of literature.

And the lack of motivation from Macbeth isn't limited to this scene, there's a complete lack of motivation displayed throughout the entirety of Act 1. Macbeth repeatedly gives reasons why he doesn’t want to kill Duncan, but doesn’t ever list a decent reason why he does. I’ll say that again: Macbeth doesn’t have a single soliloquy, speech… or, really, any lines in the whole play where he celebrates his ambition – even Simba got the chance to sing I just can’t wait to be king . If we’re to assume that Macbeth’s ambitious, surely Shakespeare would have given him at least one moment where he joyously rambles about the world kneeling before him, or explains some secret dream of power… but there’s nothing. Ever .

The closest he comes is the “To be thus is nothing…” speech, but that’s about the fear of losing power and not him showing any kind of desire FOR power . Macbeth certainly enjoys brutalising people at the end, but there’s no moment where he celebrates his alleged dream of power. This seems like an unusual omission from a playwright as capable as Shakespeare.

Anyway, after he delivers his “If t’were done when ’tis done…” – which outlines in poetic verse his reasons for not killing Duncan – Lady Macbeth enters, and he says: “We will proceed no further in this business.”

I’ll just repeat that: the man whose ambition is supposed to be the driving force behind this play says: “We will proceed no further in this business.” Now I don’t want to be a stickler for consent here, but if someone has expressed lengthy doubts about doing something that they’ve never said they wanted to do; and if they concluded by saying “I don’t want to do it,” we have to assume that he didn’t want to do it. Regardless of what he went on to do, the fact is that he didn’t just express doubts about killing Duncan, he clearly and concisely withdrew his consent: “We will proceed no further in this business.” And he then goes on to justify hi mself by talking about all the “golden opinions” he’s got, which seem to be enough for him. At this point in time, he’s happy, and his words here seem to more fairly reflect someone who is, as his wife describes: “not without ambition,” but isn’t necessarily ambitious for more.

Of course, any work of art is open to interpretation and I know that this is why a lot of people love Shakespeare, but in order to argue that Macbeth was driven by his own ambition you’d have to completely ignore quite important parts of the script: like the bit where he clearly said that he didn’t want to do it, or the bit when he listed all the reasons why he didn’t want to do it, or the bit when even his wife admits that he’s not that ambitious, or the bit when he said he was happy with what he had, or the bit when he said he might become king but he’s really not that fussed and hasn’t got any plans to do anything about it…

Which leads us to an important question, and the alternative reading: Why did he kill Duncan? (Or, more importantly: why did Shakespeare create a character who did something that he clearly didn’t want to do?)

And this is where we can engage in the real tragedy of Macbeth, which is, I think, far sadder, but has a completely different message…

So why Macbeth kill King Duncan?

The reading is simple: a) the witches’ ‘prophecy’ wasn’t a prophecy at all, it was a spell that put him under their control; and b) Lady Macbeth. The evidence is compelling:

Macbeth’s first line in the play? “So fair and foul a day I have not seen.” He actually walks on stage almost repeating what the witches have previously said. So right from the off, there’s a suggestion that he’s under their power.

The traditional reading of Macbeth, as I understand it, is that the witches’ prophecy ignited Macbeth’s already present ambition and made him pursue it. However, as I’ve already shown, Macbeth didn’t ever really show himself to be particularly ambitious and although witches’ “Hail Macbeth! Thou shalt be king hereafter…” does sound a little like a prophecy, if we look at it more as a kind of Jedi mind trick – in the spirit of “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” – then the play makes a lot more sense. These witches don’t just suggest something to him, they implant the idea into his head. It’s mind control, which was something that medieval people absolutely believed witches could do.

Immediately after hearing it, Banquo notices that Macbeth “seems to fear things which do sound so fair” – which is a clear indication that Macbeth doesn’t actually like the idea that’s just been implanted. As a character I don’t think Macbeth’s really into having power himself – hence his relationship with a borderline dominatrix. Really, Macbeth’s happiest when someone is telling him what to do and so I think the idea of becoming powerful would actually have been quite traumatic for him.

And it’s worth mentioning something here that I’ll come back to later: Shakespeare didn’t have the chance to write prose where he described a character’s response to things, so he often put those descriptions in other character’s mouths. Banquo’s line here makes it clear that Macbeth feels “fear” at the witches’ prophecy; he’s not excited, he’s afraid of the idea. There’s also a repeated use of the word “rapt” when talking about Macbeth’s reaction to the witches. These days that has more positive connotations, but the archaic meaning of the word just meant being transported on a kind of spiritual journey – or being absorbed by something religious or ethereal. At this point, I’d argue, Shakespeare is describing someone who’s being absorbed by the witches’ spell.

Anyway, not long after the witches leave, Macbeth delivers an aside in which he describes the feelings they’ve left him with. He wonders whether they are good or ill. “If good,” he says, “Why do I yield to that suggestion whose horrid image doth unfix my hair and make my seated heart knock at my ribs, against the use of nature.” There’s a lot in this line – which I’d argue is the most important line in the play:

First off: “why do I yield to that suggestion”: in other words, why am I giving in to something that someone else has told me. Clearly he is giving in to someone else’s idea, and not awakening his own ambition at all. In short: a “suggestion” that you “yield” to can only have come from someone else.

It does “unfix my hair” and make “my seated heart knock at my ribs”: Obviously he doesn’t like this idea! His hair stands on end, and his heart, which was previously settled and seated as a vassal to the king, is now knocking at his ribs; anxiety, panic, fear, however you want to pin it down, it seems clear that he is not happy with what has been suggested.

Because, for Macbeth, the idea that he should kill the king is “against the use of nature.” It is against the natural order, and it is against his own nature. After all, he’s only “not without ambition” and, for him, actually being king “stands not within the prospect of belief.”

So it would seem that the idea of doing this thing – which has never been mentioned at this point – is not something Macbeth has ever thought of previously or likes very much. In fact – much to the witches’ ire – the idea “shakes so my single state of man that function is smothered.” Or in other words, the idea of killing the king is so abhorrent to him that he doesn’t believe he can act on it – this is a key line when looking at the fact that Macbeth didn’t just object to killing the king, he thought the idea of it shook his “state of man” – his masculinity – so violently that he wouldn’t be able to act on it.

This presents a problem for the witches. But that’s ok, because they have an insider…

Before we meet their mole, however, Macbeth is told that Malcolm will be Duncan’s successor. This scene contains another key moment for those who would condemn Macbeth as a willing usurper, though countering it requires a more granular analysis:

Upon hearing the news that Malcolm will be Duncan’s successor, Macbeth says: “there’s a step on which I must fall down or else o’erleap.” This line could be delivered with a villainous cackle as he readies himself for one more murder, or it could be delivered with a bemused laugh as though to say “good luck with that one witches!” The next line finishes the previous sentence as he acknowledges that “in my way it lies. Stars hide your fires…” I’d argue that there’s a change of tone on this line. Macbeth doesn’t want to murder Duncan, but has found himself possessed, literally, by the desire. He follows this realisation with a kind of painful plea to the heavens: “Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires.” And again, we get a clear expression of Macbeth’s recognition that what he’s doing is wrong. He’s terrified that anything symbolised by the stars and their wrathful fires would ever see the idea that grows inside him. “Let not light (God) see my black and deep desires.” He knows that his desires are black and evil, and deep – almost living only in his subconscious, where the witches’ spell has taken root. I think of the idea itself as being implanted, like the foetus in Alien; it lives inside him now, and it eats him up, and he’s terrified of it. This is his tragedy: the insipid way that the witches’ wishes have been allowed to take root in his loyal, masculine mind.

And so he does what any doting husband would do, and writes to his wife…

A1 S5 is a perfect pantomime of villainy. Throughout her opening speech Lady Macbeth absolutely crucifies the idea that Macbeth wears anything even resembling trousers in their relationship: he’s too full of “kindness,” he won’t “play false,” he wants things “holily”… he’s simply not prepared to make the hard decisions. I find it staggering that anyone could read this speech and argue that Macbeth’s ambition, or lack-there-of, had any influence on what eventually happened. Lady Macbeth is presented as the one who runs that show. She doesn’t care what he wants; she’ll pour her spirits in his ear and he’ll do what she bloody well says.

And then, if there was any doubt as to her position in the play, she pulls out all the stops and confirms the worst: she’s a witch, or at least in league with them – and it is through her that the witches are able to remove whatever horror had previously threatened to “smother” Macbeth’s “function.”

Shakespeare clarifies the power dynamic in the Macbeth’s relationship when they first meet: Lady Macbeth greets him with a list of titles – “Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor…” etc. – while Macbeth simply says “My dearest love.” For me, this tells us all we need to know about their relationship, and the extent to which their intentions are not aligned: he loves her, but she sees him as a meal ticket. This is not the only time in the play when he calls her his “dearest” love (he actually refers to her as “dear” or “dearest” five times.) This is telling because although something that is “dear” is cherished and loved, it is also something expensive, and her love of his titles certainly ends up being expensive for Macbeth.

There’s also a lovely but overlooked bit of evidence for the Lady Macbeth being a witch that’s hidden in her greeting: when the witches speak to Macbeth they say “All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!” But when he writes to his wife, he misquotes them and has them claiming they said “‘Hail, king that shalt be!’” But when Lady Macbeth greets him in scene 5, she says “Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!” Which means that Lady Macbeth paraphrases the witches, despite Macbeth getting their quote wrong. For someone like Shakespeare, this has to have been deliberate.

The rest of the scene plays out simply: she asks when Duncan’s coming, he says tonight; she asks when he goes, he says tomorrow; and then she suddenly blurts out this thing about killing him! As a speech this should really be complemented with her rubbing her hands and cackling maniacally, ideally dressed as some kind of Disney-witch, while Macbeth watches on horror-struck. It’s like his worst nightmare come true: these whacky witches have implanted a thought and now his wife’s getting in on the act.

Because there’s a really important point to be made here: Macbeth never told his wife that he wanted to kill Duncan. All he said in his letter was that some witches told him he was going to become king, something that could have come about as a result of the any one of a million different things – this was 11th Century Scotland after all – but Lady Macbeth jumps straight on the regicide bandwagon. And most tellingly of all, she immediately attacks Macbeth’s response to the idea:

You see, as I said before, without the chance for narrative description Shakespeare often uses other characters to reveal responses. Here, she suggests killing Duncan and then immediately attacks his guilty face – because, obviously, he didn’t look like he liked the idea. Here, Lady Macbeth says that his “face is a book where men may read many strange matters,” which is, in many ways, a description of how Macbeth has responded to the idea – with a face of horror, confusion, or, more probably, fearful guilt.

She continues to explain her plan, but he’s too kowtowed to object, and in the end he only has the strength to say: “We’ll talk later” – and you could deliver this line any one of a million different ways, but for this reading it lends itself to a kind of panicked attempt to buy a little time; or a slightly fearful attempt to end the conversation, depending on how abused you want Macbeth to appear. Crucially though, Lady Macbeth ends the scene telling him to stay calm and “leave all the rest to me.”

In summary: Macbeth didn’t ever say he wanted to kill the king. Lady Macbeth had the idea, and told him, in as many words: leave it all to me. All of which supports the initial statement in the essay: I don’t understand how this plan has anything to do with Macbeth’s ambition?

The next time we see Macbeth he’s explaining, at length, his reasons for not wanting to kill the king, which has been covered already – the poisoned cup always kills the poisoner; he and Duncan are friends and family; even Angels would complain, etc… Then Lady Macbeth enters and he says that they will “proceed no further in this business.” At this point, I can see her face fall stony cold; one of those faces that says: “Are you sure you want to do this?” Macbeth nervously continues and offers her the one thing she seems to want by talking about his titles and “golden opinions,” but she won’t have it and instead she steamrollers him.

First of all she hits him with a string of questions – classic henpecking-wife motif – only stopping briefly to remind him that if he doesn’t do this she’ll assume he doesn’t love her – classic abusive behaviour: the abuser lies down and plays victim unless they get what they want.

At one point, she even asks what beast it was that promised to kill Duncan in the first place! But he didn’t ever say he wanted to kill the king! It was all her idea! This moment always reminds me of lessons when kids come in and ask if we’re watching a film. I say no. They say I promised! I say, I didn’t. They insist. I don’t fall for it. Claiming someone said something they didn’t say and then using that as leverage is classic gaslighting. You’re basically messing with someone’s ability to use memory as a reliable point of reference. Before Macbeth can object though, she kicks him where she knows it hurts and attacks his manhood.

I’ve always thought that if you’re going to play Macbeth right you’d need someone like The Rock or that guy from Guardians of the Galaxy who’s tough as nuts but as thick as pea soup. Macbeth’s a meathead; he’s a jock; an alpha male with all the emotional resilience of an autumn leaf. Based on his responses in this scene I can completely understand why his wife thinks he’s such a muppet. You’d need him to be big, to get away with all the knave-to-chaps cleaving he did earlier on, but he can’t be clever – my favourite Macbeth was always Sean Connery who really nailed the nice but dim delivery. Lady Macbeth’s persuasive techniques have all the subtlety of a club round the head, and he only has four lines before he changes his mind. He’s like putty in her hands, and I find it hard to see how he could go from the reflective poet who talked about trumpet-tongued angels and heaven’s cherubim just moments before, and into this troglodyte who grunts about manliness and then agrees to murdering his friend.

I sometimes reflect on the fact that Shakespeare was stuck in a bit of a bind with his characters simply because his brand was all about verbal dexterity, and that makes it difficult for him to write stupid people – even his thugs speak in verse. As a result, I find Macbeth’s pathetic attempts to defend himself here a little jarring, but maybe this just adds to his real tragedy: he was a poet, a sensitive soul, who really only wanted to chop people’s heads off for the king, but his wife never appreciated that…

Anyway, in the end – and it didn’t take much – she talks him around.

It’s also worth picking up on a common modern misunderstanding of masculinity at the time. I’ve heard English teachers talk about how Lady Macbeth was rebelling against her feminine chains by being ambitious for power but this really doesn’t cover the whole story. Firstly, it’s is a stone-cold fact that if you wanted to enter the Royal family in Jacobean England you had a better chance as a woman and being married into it, than as a man and… doing what? There really was no way to be Royal as a man. Lady Macbeth’s desire for advancement was abhorrent for women and men. Ambition simply wasn’t viewed in the same way back then. You carried on your family line and that was what was expected of you. As a man you could advance, you could raise the profile of your name, but there were very strict rules around what you could and couldn’t do, and defending their honour was something that Jacobean men would have taken to the grave. This play is really about a man struggling to remain loyal to the expectations of his masculinity while giving his demanding wife what she expects.

While we’re looking at Macbeth as a henpecked husband though, it’s worth looking at the last thing his wife says before he changes his mind: the whole baby killing business. Obviously, this has led to all the discussion over whether or not they had children before, though I see something different:

In A1 S5 Lady Macbeth says that she wanted to “chastise” Macbeth – the actions of a parent; after killing the king, she tries to get him to wash his hands; she tells him off for bringing the daggers with him; she tells him that it’s “the eye of childhood that fears the painted devil.” After he sees the ghost she compares it to the “air drawn dagger” he saw, in a way that reminds me of a mother scolding her child after hearing too many tales of some monster under the bed. And in my favourite moment, Macbeth tells her, after he’s planned to kill Banquo, that she should know nothing of it until she “applaud the deed.” I imagine some strange toddler version Macbeth sitting on the potty while his beaming mother claps and smiles at his ability to do just what she’s taught him; because, after all, at this point – when he’s ordering the death of Banquo – he is really only doing exactly what she taught him to. He is hers now; owned, signed, sealed, delivered.

Based on the above interpretation of their relationship being oedipal, it’s reasonable to suggest that the reason Macbeth was so disturbed by the image of his wife smashing their child’s head against a wall had nothing to do with any theoretic child, but everything to do with the idea that Macbeth was the child. Lady Macbeth killing their child was a veiled threat of violence against Macbeth himself.

Because the truth is that although Macbeth is physically a man, and the play explores cultural masculinity, the character himself was very much a child before his wife. She has all the power – it’s her plan after all. She dominates him, and although it seems obvious at this point to see his hamartia as being the influence of his wife I’d argue that the truth is broader and more insidious than that.

Because behind Lady Macbeth are the witches, who are, arguably, the real Joker-esque, anarchic villains of the piece.

As far as I can tell, the common understanding is that the witches aren’t actually active in the play but merely trigger Macbeth’s own ambition. I find this a weak argument. After all, why would Shakespeare write a play with witches if they weren’t capable of any real magic? This was a world where witches were considered genuinely magical creatures, and yet most common readings suggest that Shakespeare’s witches had no real power whatsoever – they merely ignited Macbeth’s own ambition.

But there’s one piece of evidence that leaves me unable to leave the witches side-lined and it lies in the story of the sailor’s wife with the chestnuts.

Act 1 Scene 3 opens with a story that’s largely viewed as being a filler, in which one witch – I don’t know which – talks about having cast a spell on a sailor’s wife. But the spell is quite specific: she will “drain him dry as hay and sleep shall neither night nor day hang upon his penthouse lid.” She will take away his ability to sleep. Surely a playwright as interested in details as Shakespeare was wouldn’t have had a spell like that mentioned at the beginning of the play, and then include constant references to an inability to sleep throughout it, if he wasn’t alluding to the fact that the witches have directly caused all this. Also, the “drain him dry as hay” reference is commonly seen as sexual, but what if it just refers to the same kind of psychological torment that Macbeth endures during the rest of the play? They will psychologically torment the sailor and take away his ability to heal himself with the “balm of hurt minds.” In short, here, they’re basically just telling the audience what they’re about to do to Macbeth.

Also, just after he kills Duncan, Macbeth says he thought he “heard a voice cry ‘sleep no more. Macbeth does murder sleep.’” Surely this is an actual voice: the voice of the witches, that carries on the wind, as they cast their evil spells and control him.

And so it’s not his guilt that affects his sleep, it’s a spell. It’s a spell cast by the witches – the witches who controlled his actions and made him murder Duncan. This is a play that warns the audience about the insidious threat posed by the overt and subversive influence of women – a threat that will turn the natural order itself upside-down.

In fact, though it’s almost never performed as a part of the play, that speech in Act 1 Scene 3 is really just one long Chekov’s Gun, in which the witches establish what they have the power to do to men, before going on and doing it to Macbeth:

In that speech they say: “I will drain him dry as hay: / Sleep shall neither night nor day / Hang upon his pent-house lid;” which they do to Macbeth when they stop him from sleeping. They say: “He shall live a man forbid:” and Macbeth spends the rest of the play being denied what he wants. “Weary se'nnights nine times nine / Shall he dwindle, peak and pine:” though the actual length of Macbeth’s sufferance is never determined, he definitely spends the rest of the play veering between dwindling, peaking and pining; and they end saying “Though his bark cannot be lost, / Yet it shall be tempest-tost.” Which is a near perfect description of the position of Macbeth by the end. I honestly cannot understand why any director even remotely worth their salt would remove this speech.

Another interesting moment comes in A2 S1, just before Macbeth does the deed. He’s getting ready for bed and tells Banquo that he doesn’t think of the witches much. I’ve heard it suggested that this is Macbeth lying to his friend, and although I could also imagine that he’s been slightly side-tracked by his wife, I’d suggest that the real reason Macbeth can’t talk to Banquo about what he’s going is because a) Fleance is there, and it’s not kid’s talk; and b) the only way he can do this now is to mention Lady Macbeth’s psychotic ambition, and like any victim of an abusive relationship, breaking the private prison is difficult. He does, however, say that he wants to speak to Banquo; he says that he wants to share; he tries to step outside the feminine trap he’s in and speak to his male friend. But this is a threat to the witches and so they send a magic dagger – the phallic symbol of the masculinity he so desires – to give him a nudge in the right direction.

Now again, I’ve heard said that this actually is a product of Macbeth’s “heat oppressed brain,” but really? This is a play with witches, real witches, and it would make far more sense if this was just an example of a piece of magic that pushes him into the deed. Macbeth’s been harried and hassled by women throughout the play: the witches’ planted the idea inside his mind, his wife poured her spirits into him, and now there’s magic daggers… the guy didn’t stand a chance! “O’er the one-half world nature seems dead.” This is him crossing into the witches’ world – his nature (once “too full o’ the milk of human kindness”) is dying. He sees it happening, but like an abused husband or the victim of a possession, there is nothing he can do about it.

The witches having greater influence over the action also helps explain one of my other big bug-bears about this play: the sudden change and death of Lady Macbeth.

In A3 S5 Hecate arrives, in a scene that CliffsNotes describes as being “unnecessary to the understanding of Macbeth,” a feeling that’s generally mirrored in how often it’s ignored by productions – apparently it wasn’t even written by the Bard. In the scene, Hecate drags the witches over the coals for taking on this whole thing alone. She argues that Macbeth is basically unworthy of their attention and suggests making him feel secure, arguing that “security is mortal’s chiefest enemy.”

Now, I can sort of understand what CliffNotes is saying, except for the impact the scene could have had on Lady Macbeth’s narrative (I’ll admit that this one is a stretch, but here goes):

Lady Macbeth isn’t actually on stage much during the second half of the play. Her final two scenes are the banquet scene and her sleepwalking moment. In the banquet scene she’s fine; she’s Lady Macbeth – chastising her husband for being a baby, sending home all his friends because he went weird, and generally being the most competent person in the room. Then she disappears for the whole of Act 4. Then she reappears, mad, and kills herself. By any standards this is a significant turn of events, but for some reason Shakespeare decides not to engage with it. It just happens. A massive personality overhaul just happens, entirely off-stage. Her story is basically: dominant, dominant, dominant, dominant, dominant, mad, dead. Admittedly, in A3 S2 she expressed some self-doubt, during her “nought’s had, all’s spent” speech, but since this is only a quatrain it seems a stretch to take this as being self-doubt enough for suicide. Either this is the Shakespearean cannon’s biggest overlooked character flip, or something else happened… and maybe the Hecate scene explains it.

Because Lady Macbeth has to be seen as a witch. The idea that her witchy nature is only suggested seems wrong given the fact that her opening scene – in a play where witches are major characters – has her calling “Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts…” etc. The fact that her opening scene has her performing an occult rite can’t be ignored. Her character is established doing witchy things, and then she aids and abets the desires of the actual witches, and this cannot be ignored. Nor, I think, can the fact that she paraphrased the witches after Macbeth misquoted them – this is just another pointer to the fact that Lady M is definitely with the D.

When you apply this, you can follow that after Hecate withdraws her support, when Hecate calls for the saga to be drawn to a head, Lady Macbeth is deserted and then goes mad. One of the things she asks the spirits for in A1 S5 is that they “block up the passage to remorse,” so she won’t feel guilty. So she asked the spirits to stop her from feeling guilty, and then, when Hecate withdraws her support, she’s suddenly consumed by a guilt that she’s never expressed before. That seems to be a reasonable narrative arc, and without it, her suicide is… well, to say it came out of the blue is an understatement.

Bearing in mind the idea that the evil characters withdrawing their support may have actually caused Lady Macbeth’s death, it’s also worth noting that the news of her final demise is delivered by Satan himself… or, sorry – Seyton… Satan… Seyton…

PlayShakespeare.com suggests that the fact their names rhyme may be “coincidence” but I mean… really? As a playwright Shakespeare has been analysed more than any other writer of all time, nothing the man did is considered accidental, and yet two characters called Satan and Seyton, who would have first appeared in a play which featured witchcraft as a major theme and was written to be performed without a script to note the difference in spelling… I mean… I have no understanding of how that can be considered coincidence. If anyone can enlighten me, I’d really appreciate it.

Either way, in the end Macbeth is killed and the play closes, leaving the audience discussing where and why it all went wrong for Macbeth. What would they have said? What was Macbeth’s hamartia? What was the thing that they learnt from watching this tragic story unfold?

Well, who was Macbeth, according to this reading? He was a good man, loyal to the king, rewarded and celebrated. However, he was a child before his wife, and he couldn’t resist the spell of the witches. Basically, he couldn’t stand up to the women in his life. He loved his wife desperately, but she only wanted power and he was left pandering to her psychotic desires. In short: his love for women left him vulnerable to the evil that resides within the women in the play. This is a play that warns us about what happens when good men are bossed around by women. If that happens, the natural order itself will collapse.

Really, I’d argue that this is the most misogynist play in a cannon that also includes The Taming of the Shrew, which is saying something.

And there’s one final piece of analysis that puts the nail in the misogynist coffin for me:

In the play, women try to take control and the world collapses. Women should not meddle in matters of power; those who try are basically Satanists or abusers, and the men who listen to them bring doom upon themselves and all around them.

But… the same is not true the other way. Because the real hero of the play is Macduff, who kills Macbeth. Macduff is the perfect man: he chooses his King over his wife; his loyalty to the masculine chain of command is never broken; he is not like Macbeth. When he discovers that his children are killed, he is encouraged to “dispute it like a man.” He will, he says, but first he must “feel it as a man.” At this moment he transcends gender by being both loyal and emotional. He felt the pain of the loss of his family, but he stood by the natural order anyway – he stood by his King over his wife; which is exactly what Macbeth didn’t do.

At this point, it is as though Macduff has transcended the gender divide to become both a feared killer and to feel the emotions that were regarded as being the preserve of the feminine. And he can do this for one reason: he can do it because, as a character, he is the furthest person from womanhood – he is the ideal dream of the misogynist: He can do it because he was not even “of woman born.”

This reading isn’t an attack against Shakespeare’s actual vision of women, or his personal feelings – and I fully accept that he has written some fantastic female parts – but this reading does take into account the fact that Shakespeare was a master people-pleaser, king of the blockbuster, and this play was very clearly written with a particular end: to impress King James, who was a notable misogynist – just ask Agnes Sampson. (I think there’s also a case for saying that Shakespeare didn’t like this play much. He did, after all, call it a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound a fury and signifying nothing.”)

Shakespeare wanted King James to support his theatre company, and James wanted a play about three specific things: witchcraft, misogyny and reasons not to commit treason. Shakespeare provided all three, with bells and whistles. The most notable whistle being the wonderful unresolved plot line of how Banquo’s children would ascend to the throne – I’ve never taught a class where someone didn’t pick up on this missing link. You explain that the reason wasn’t even in the play at all, but the rumour that James was a direct descendent of Banquo’s. One kid even picked up on a lovely image from A4 S1 where the line of kings walk forward, with the last holding a glass that might have been a looking glass, that was maybe once held up to James’ face to remind the room of his noble rights over the throne – or for the plebs, in The Globe, perhaps it was a picture of the man himself.

It’s also worth contextualising some of the reasons behind James’s misogyny: to start with I don’t know if it’s entirely fair to claim that a Jacobean audience would have been wildly surprised by a powerful female lead like Lady Macbeth given that they’d just had 45 years of Queen Elizabeth – a brutal, ruthless ruler who had no problems killing people who went against her. On top of that, Elizabeth only ascended to the throne after killing her sister Mary, James’s mother, in what threatened to become a quite bloody conflict. In fact, powerful women had been around for some time – and most of that time was bloody and violent. So I don’t think it is fair to say that Lady Macbeth’s blood-thirsty, ambitious ruthlessness would have come as a surprise to anyone.

But for me, the most powerful influencer of James’s psyche was the story of Anne Boleyn. Anne was from a noble family but it wasn’t an important one. Henry, at the time, was a famed warrior and a good King. Anne allegedly seduced Henry and as a result he started the reformation that tore the kingdom apart and plunged England into fifty years of conflict. The conflict wasn’t really resolved until James took the throne in 1504.

So, Henry and Anne’s story is one of a seemingly good man – a strong warrior – who was tempted and changed by a seductress who then brought ruin on the kingdom. And guess what? Before she was beheaded, Anne Boleyn was accused of being a witch. I simply cannot believe that the story of Anne wasn’t the main driver of the character of Lady Macbeth.

I can’t imagine James being more satisfied with a play than he would have been with Macbeth: it’s set in Scotland; it gives authority to his claims over the throne; it encourages us to remain in our stations and not challenge the natural order in the way Guy Fawkes had done; and it reminds us, most of all, to fear the women who, he thought, had brought so much ruin onto England.

It is a piece of brilliant piece of propaganda, written by a master of the art, that helped an ambitious playwright earn a fortune from a misogynist royal.

But it is definitely NOT a play about Macbeth’s ambition…

IMAGES

  1. Macbeth: Ambition Quotes, Fun Revision Activity

    macbeth ambition activities

  2. Macbeth

    macbeth ambition activities

  3. The theme of ambition in Macbeth

    macbeth ambition activities

  4. Ambition in Macbeth

    macbeth ambition activities

  5. Macbeth Flashcards

    macbeth ambition activities

  6. Macbeth Ambition AQA

    macbeth ambition activities

VIDEO

  1. Ambition in Macbeth GCSE English literature analysis

  2. Macbeth

COMMENTS

  1. Ambition Theme in Macbeth

    Macbeth is a play about ambition run amok. The weird sisters ' prophecies spur both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to try to fulfill their ambitions, but the witches never make Macbeth or his wife do anything. Macbeth and his wife act on their own to fulfill their deepest desires.

  2. Macbeth Teacher Pack 2023

    Activity 1: World Building Activity 2: What's in a Scene? Exploring the characters Activity 3: The Macbeths Activity 4: Unwritten Scenes Exploring the themes Activity 5: Most Wanted Activity 6: A Hero's Ruin Activity 7: Shell Shocked Activity 8: Powerful Words Resource PDFs

  3. How to Get Students Excited About Macbeth / Moore English

    This activity helps students begin making connections to the text, activate prior knowledge, and engage in conversation. Depending on the group of students I have, this resource can be part of station rotation or part of a classroom discussion. While Reading Macbeth

  4. Power & Ambition In Macbeth

    The Tragedy of Macbeth is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare that was first performed back in 1606.Macbeth dramatizes the psychological and physical damaging effects caused by the political ambition of those who look for power just for their own sake.. The driving force in this tragedy is the ambition, or more specifically, the ambition that goes unbridled by any theory of morality.

  5. Theme of Ambition in Macbeth

    The theme of ambition is one of the most prominent and important themes in Shakespeare's play "Macbeth.". The play explores the dangers of unchecked ambition and the corrupting influence of power, as the characters pursue their goals with ruthless determination. From the beginning of the play, Macbeth is portrayed as a brave and loyal ...

  6. Macbeth Key Theme: Ambition

    Exam Tip Although understanding the theme of ambition is crucial in understanding Macbeth as a play, it is equally important to understand what other ideas Shakespeare is exploring, and how the theme of ambition relates to the principal characters in the play.

  7. Macbeth by William Shakespeare Summary

    Five Act Structure Characters Tragic Hero William Shakespeare's Macbeth continues to be one of his most celebrated plays, even today. While it is not one of his more elaborately constructed works, it nonetheless examines the complicated nature of the human soul, especially when tempted with power and ambition.

  8. Macbeth

    is a play about witchcraft and ambition. All of the information you need about the play is divided into four sections: Story, Characters, Language and Staging. Each section has three different levels of information. Choose which level is right for you or simply move between them to find what you need.

  9. Learning

    Ambition Kingship Fate and free will Grief and despair Loyalty and deception Rebellion Duty and honour You can discover more about these themes and where they appear in the text in our Themes Resource. DOWNLOAD FREE RESOURCES Access Teacher Packs, a Macbeth synopsis and activities by downloading these PDFs: New Macbeth Teacher Pack 2023

  10. Themes

    Ambition and power in Macbeth Macbeth's ambition and desire for power lead to his downfall Shakespeare set Macbeth in the distant past and in a part of Britain that few of his audience...

  11. Macbeth: Themes KS4/5

    Macbeth: Themes KS4/5. In these lessons, students will engage with the themes and ideas at the heart of the text, including deception, ambition, and guilt. Tasks include: tracking these themes throughout the play, drawing out key quotations; creative writing on Lady Macbeth's sleep walking, in the character of her doctor; and a list of practice ...

  12. Ambition in Macbeth: Theme & Examples

    Ambition in Macbeth: Theme &…. The undeniable power of unbridled ambition and its ramifications are extensively portrayed within William Shakespeare's tragedy; Macbeth. Within this play, ambition is portrayed as a corrupting and unquenchable force through the main concepts of mental imbalance, supernatural behaviors and betrayal.

  13. Meaningful and Fun Activities for Teaching Macbeth

    Teaching Macbeth allows students to gain a deeper understanding of universal themes such as ambition, power, and morality while helping them tap into their creativity through set design, reenactments, and group activities.

  14. An Analysis of Macbeth's Ambition

    Lee Jamieson Updated on September 20, 2019 Ambition is the driving force of William Shakespeare's tragedy " Macbeth ." More specifically, it is about ambition that goes unchecked by any concept of morality; this is why it becomes a dangerous quality.

  15. The theme of ambition in Macbeth

    The theme of ambition in Macbeth Subject: English Age range: 14-16 Resource type: Lesson (complete) File previews pptx, 304.5 KB Powerpoint lesson based around the theme of ambition in Shakespeare. There's a list of key quotes for students to discuss and think about.

  16. Macbeth Ambition Quotes: How Ambition Runs Through Macbeth

    (Act 1, Scene 3) 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.

  17. Macbeth: Themes

    Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition. The main theme of Macbeth —the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints—finds its most powerful expression in the play's two main characters. Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds ...

  18. KS3 teaching resources

    Macbeth is a popular choice as a KS3 Shakespeare play, with its appealing supernatural setting and accessible themes of violence, betrayal and ambition.You'll find a dedicated selection of resources suited to KS3 learners in our collection. If you are looking for more challenge and a comprehensive set of lesson ideas, try our GCSE teaching packs, Macbeth and Revising Macbeth.

  19. Macbeth Quotes: Ambition

    Of th'imperial theme (1.3) Macbeth speaks these lines as he realizes that the witches' prophecy (that he will be Thane of Cawdor) has come true. He immediately starts to wonder whether this means that their third prophecy (that he will become king) will also be true.

  20. 12 excellent teaching resources for Macbeth

    Take a personality quiz As you know, teaching Macbeth to high school students requires capturing their interest. And for teens, one of the best ways to do that is to relate the content to their own lives. A great way to do that is this fun pre-reading activity for Macbeth, a personality quiz by High School Help.

  21. MACBETH

    DESCRIPTION This play is Shakespeare's tragedy of the rise and fall of two people corrupted by power and ambition. SELECTED AWARDS & CAST Selected Awards: 1980 British Academy Awards Nominations: Best Actress (Judi Dench); Best Television Cameraman; Best Television Lighting. Featured Actors:

  22. Macbeth Themes

    Main Theme of Macbeth - Introduction. Macbeth is set in northern Scotland in the 11th Century. This part of Scotland is known for being dark, rainy, damp, and cold. All of these features of the setting contribute to the gloomy and fearful mood of the play. The play opens as the Three Witches meet during a storm, which enhances the sense that ...

  23. AQA English Revision

    Abstract: According to the most common interpretation of Shakespeare's Macbeth, the character of Macbeth was driven to kill King Duncan because he was ambitious for the throne. This essay argues that Macbeth can't really be considered ambitious since he repeatedly said that he didn't want to kill the king; he'd never previously thought ...