DEHUMANIZATION OR THE POWER OF UNCONTROLLED AMBITION IN

SHAKESPEARES MACBETH

Will all great Neptunes Ocean wash this blood

Clean from my hand? No: this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one, red.
(Act II, Scene 2)

Ambition has always proved to be a double-edged knife that, when wielded without any moral
sense or respect for the opponents, ends up destroying ones personality. Fighting for ones dreams has always
been a struggle and proving oneself to the world is a very difficult task at all times. Working hard and being
loyal is an admirable thing, but think about the next scenario: someone that looks otherworldly and far more allknowing than oneself tells one that, if one wishes, one could achieve everything in life, no matter the cost. Who
wouldnt do anything to achieve ones goals when being asserted of his outraging, perhaps, and unstoppable
success?
Macbeth is one of the best known Shakespearian works, being commonly dated back to 1606 and it
clearly reflects the relation between the playwright and the new sovereign of England, James I. The plot
revolves around Macbeth, a Thane from Scotland, who pursues power at all costs after being told the future by
three witches. His decline and his personality is placed in opposition with the loyalty shown by Banquo, whom
the witches tell Though shalt get kings, though thou be none. Here, Shakespeare implies that the new English
king is the descendent of an honest and righteous man who has maintained his principles at all times and would
not let himself be led into temptation by merely confusing metaphors of three strange women.
The character of Macbeth is built upon true facts taken from Holinsheds Chronicles that are changed
in order to present a Machiavellian prince who is blood-thirsty and turns from a brave general into a murderer
and a tyrant. Another central theme in the play is witchcraft as King James took a special interest in this subject
and even wrote a book called Daemonologie, where he approves of witch hunting. In the medieval times,
witches were believed to be creatures of the devil, who had a close relationship with demons through their
familiars (mostly cats) and who would let demons suck their blood, so when capturing a woman thought to be a
witch, they would look for special marks on her body.

Thus, the witches are presented as evil creatures, who tempt Macbeth by prophesizing about him
becoming king of Scotland and by doing so they reveal his own inner ambitions that become uncontrollable.
The witches are key characters that play with Macbeths mind and ambitions as they only speak in metaphors
that can easily be interpreted either ways. They do not specify anything for certain, only offer options though
their want-to-be prophecies. But, is Macbeth a victim of the witches or could his destruction have been avoided
by wiser thoughts and a lighter heart?
The play begins with the encounter of the three witches who plan to meet Macbeth and tell him his
destiny, hence tempting him by offering him the certainty that whatever he does, no matter how ruthless or
immoral, will lead to his becoming king.
FIRST WITCH: When shall we three meet again?
In thunder, lighting or in rain?
SECOND WITCH: When the hurly-burlys done,
When the battles lost and won.
(Act I, Scene 1)
The fact that the play begins with such lines hints towards an ending when good conquers evil, so in a
way it foretells the outcome of the story before it even begins. One can assume that the hurly-burly refers to
the disruption of the order that Macbeth causes when he kills the king, who in medieval times and hierarchy is
viewed as the exponent of God. This entire disorder that Macbeth finds himself into affects him to the point of
madness and his outrageous arrogance brings only doubt and death upon him and his wife. The word battle
suggests the outcome of the entire plot, as a battle cannot be lost and won at the same time. Still, this is what
happens in the play: Macbeth loses the battle over the throne, whilst good prevails through the character of
Macduff. Although, it can also be said that the real winners of the battle were the witches, who played with the
other characters destinies and did not have to face any punishment.
The witches and Macbeth meet relatively late in the play, after he has already won King Duncans trust
and defeated the armies that raised against the king.
FIRST WITCH: All hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Glamis.
SECOND WITCH: All hail Macbeth, hail to thee Thane of Cawdor.
THIRD WITCH: All hail Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter.
(Act I, Scene 3)
These prophecies turn out to be quite confusing for Macbeth and Banquo who do not believe those
otherworldly creatures that seem to reveal both everything and nothing at the same time. Only after Macbeth is
named Thane of Cawdor does he ponder whether to accept the witches sayings as a prophecy or not and
wonders: why do I yield to that suggestion?.
He recounts everything to his wife, with whom he has a strong relationship, and she advises him to
invite the king to their house where they can kill him and make it look as if someone else were guilty. After
questioning the success of such a plan, Macbeth finally agrees to it and the night the king is to be murdered in
his own house, he starts a long series of delusions by seeing a dagger close to him where there is nothing at all.
Is this a dagger, which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee:

I have thee not, yet I see thee still.

Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
(Act II, Scene 1)
The dagger stands for Macbeths desire for murder, for his ambitions and wishes of clutching the
power and ruling over Duncans kingdom. Moreover, he becomes fascinated not with the position of king, but
with the thrill of murder, with that simple idea which slowly turns into something concrete. He releases, in a
way, his own demons and unlashes the desires he so much tried to hold back. The assertion that he will become
king allows him to admit his inner desires for such a horrendous act as murdering ones king and guest when
offering him shelter from peril. He becomes morally evil and desirous of an uncontrollable ambition which
leads to his destruction. Soon enough, scenes of remorse that turn into visions start consuming him. He feels
guilty for the deeds he had done and even sees the ghost of Banquo whose murder he ordered as to secure the
throne for his descendants. The climax of his paranoia and madness is when he demands that the wife and
children of Macduff, a nobleman of Scotland that turns against Macbeth, to be murdered.
Driven by his paranoia, he seeks the witches again and demands them through a hyperbolic speech the
foretelling of his destiny.
I conjure you, by that which you profess,
(Howeer you come to know it) answer me:
Though you untie the winds, and let them fight
Against the churches: though the yesty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up:
Though bladed corn be lodgd, and trees blown down,
Though castles topple on their warders heads:
Though palaces, and pyramids do slope
Their heads to their foundations: though the treasure
Of Natures germen, tumble all together,
Even till destruction sicken: answer me
To what I ask you.
(Act IV, Scene 1)
This speech suggests how desperate Macbeth must have felt, how lost and how indifferent to what could
have happened to him. He shows defiance towards the witches who, even if more powerful than Macbeth
himself, must answer to him. He becomes obsessed with destroying anyone who gets in his way and this choice
is one made by Macbeth himself. The witches only speak to him in metaphors which can be interpreted
according to circumstances, but his choices of achieving his goals by evil manners belong only to him and his
uncontrollable ambition. Somewhat, the witches can be regarded as the voices of his refrained desires and

ambitions that only pinpoint what he had always wished, but do not tell him to accomplish his goals by
murdering anyone he believes to stand in his way. The scenes of destruction in Macbeths speech hint to more
than just natural disasters, they suggest a sort of correlation between a wretched nature and his own feelings, his
broken spirits and the paranoia that took over him. By obsessing over destroying everything in his way, he
destroys himself and lets his own ambition consume him to the point of becoming indifferent towards danger.
The repeated use of the adverb though emphasizes Macbeths desperation, the urge for reassertion
and, in a way, the need to know whether he can escape his own fate the fate he had chosen the moment he
ordered King Duncans death. At this point in the plot, Macbeths paranoia reaches its climax. There is no more
ambition, there is no more hope for redemption or at least forgiveness, there is no remorse he fights for what
he still believes to be his goal, but in the end he is defeated by Macduff and thus, the time is free.
One might wonder whether his thirst for power and murder was caused by the witches prophecies or he
had those ambitions before meeting the witches, but tried to refrain them. I do not consider Macbeth a victim of
the witches, but more a victim of his own ambition. He wished for more than he could manage and acceded to
such power only though evil deeds that haunted him and his wife until their deaths. Macbeth is the maker of his
own fate, his choices were the ones that led him to such an outcome, and the process of his dehumanization and
decline is outlined by the author and presented as the punishment for committing hubris.
After reading the play, one may ask oneself whether man is born with an affinity for good or, on the
contrary, one must educate oneself in order to be good. I believe the latter to be the truth and Macbeth is merely
a man who chose to unleash the demons within, try to accept them and not refrain from his desires, even if they
would bring upon him nothing but misery. I do believe each one of us is bad and also good and that it is only up
to us which parts we choose to destroy from deep within one thing is for sure: each choice, no matter how
small, changes us and our destiny. Perhaps it is best to try to educate the demons each and every one of us has
deep within, try to tame them in a way and, if possible, accept the fact that we are both good and bad, but that it
doesnt necessarily matter the struggle we shelter inside of us, but the good deeds we put into the world. No
matter what choices we make, I think we all end up at some point in our lives when we feel the need to ask for
someones help and feel as lost as Macbeth when he said:
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseasd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuffd bosom, of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
(Act V, Scene 3)