Shakespeare uses Lady Macbeth as a construct to reinforce Macbeth’s ambition.

In her
monologue, Lady Macbeth attempts to persuade Macbeth to realise his potential and what he
must do to become king. When she says, “Yet do I fear thy nature, It is too full o’th’milk of
human kindness/ To catch the nearest way,” she fears her husband’s compassionate nature will
get in the way of their plan to overthrow Duncan, and steer him away from the path he aspires
to be on. Lady Macbeth uses ‘milk’ as a metaphor for the stereotypically feminine quality of
nurturing kindness - women at Shakespeare’s time being expected to have such qualities -
being an ironic implication that she is far less full of milk than Macbeth as he is seen to be
incapable of carrying out the heinous crime that is regicide.

Lady Macbeth tries to motivate Macbeth, through several persuasive devices, onto the dark
ambitious path she believes will help him reach glory. When she says “Great Glamis/’thus thou
must do’ if thou have it; And that which rather thou dost fear to do,” Lady Macbeth emasculates
him by suggesting he is a coward and is not willing to do what it takes to obtain the throne. If a
woman were to challenge a man of Macbeth’s stature to be seen as cowardly - usually not
associated with men of high honour at the time - then he had to do whatever it took to restore
his reputation. ‘Great Glamis’ is ironic as Macbeth has just been promoted to a higher rank, but
his wife is questioning whether he deserves the role of being thane of Cawdor just yet. This
further fuels Macbeth’s ambitions, even though they might prove to be fatal in the imminent
future.

Moreover, Macbeth starts to think deeper on the witches prophecies and what it may mean for
him in the future. When Macbeth says “Two truths are told/ As happy prologues to the swelling
act/ Of the imperial theme,” he realises the witches prophecy - that Macbeth will be Thane of
Cawdor - has come true. He wonders if their third prophecy - Macbeth becoming king - will also
be true. At this point in time, witchcraft and witches were seen as ominous and almost non
humanlike entities that had supernatural abilities. Thus, further convincing the audience, who at
the time were intrigued by the idea of evil being manifested physically on stage by the witches,
and Macbeth to believe they actually know what they are talking about and foresee the
forthcoming events. The enthusiasm he has towards this idea suggests he finds the possibility
appealing, even though he fully realises he must commit an atrocious crime in order to achieve
it. This hints at Macbeth’s growing ambition and foreshadows his later actions, yet at this point in
the act, it seems that he declines any option leading to regicide.

Finally, Shakespeare shows Macbeths’s ambition through his soliloquy, in which he

contemplates killing Duncan. When he says “I have no spur/ To prick the sides of my intent, but
only/ Vaulting ambition which oérlaps itself/ And falls on th’other,” Macbeth uses a metaphor that
compares his experience to horse riding. He describes being unable to motivate himself to take
action by likening himself to a horse rider who cannot use his ‘spurs’ to motivate his horse to go
faster. The one thing he does have is ambition, which he compares to a horse and rider who
overestimates their ability to leap over an obstacle, and end up falling down. These lines
describe the tension between Macbeth’s unwillingness to move ahead with his plan to murder
Duncan, and acknowledgement of his ambition which is slowly leading him down a dangerous
path.

In conclusion, through the use of different literary devices, Macbeth’s ambition is presented as
being complicated. By wanting to become king, he disrupts the natural order which ultimately
leads to his downfall. This reveals how yielding to his ambition and murdering Duncan has not
brought him peace, but rather has just left him more paranoid and anxious. Macbeth’s violent
actions set off a chain reaction of committing violent actions in order to maintain his hold on the
power he has gained.