Lady Macbeth: Power & Insecurity in Over-Ambition - Essay Sample

Power brings security, and this is the reason why people struggle through electoral campaigns, spending billions of dollars so that they can attain power over others. However, when the pursuit for power is characterized by lust and over-ambition, the outcome often yields insecurity as opposed to the promise of security. Lady Macbeth is the true depiction of an over-ambitious person, and her pursuit for power makes her, alongside her husband to commit heinous sins, and murders, and when all this increase her insecurities, she commits suicide to get away from it all. Through her character traits, and more so, her zeal to amass power, the theme of greed for power is developed adequately.

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Lady Macbeth is not the typical woman of her era, sitting back and looking up to the husband to elevate her to glory, but instead becomes the spark that ignites him to where she wants them to be. She displays a 'manly' ambition, as she maneuvers through every possible path to ensure she becomes queen, and to do so, Macbeth has to be king. She even renounces the weakness associated with being a woman and asks the spirits to "unsex me here/And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full/Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood; (Shakespeare, 1606). After learning the prophecy by the three witches regarding her husband's ascension to power, she assumes the zeal of a man. Her ambition to power accompanies cruelty, and she immediately comes up with a plan to kill King Duncan so that he could ascend to power. When her ambition does not bear as much fruit as she would desire, she employs determination.

Determination fuels the ambition that Lady Macbeth has, and this makes her follow each of her plans to completion. She displays enough aspirations for both of them and weaves every plan with the right amount of fabric to see it through. She attacks the reluctance of her husband as being "too full o'th' milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way" (Shakespeare, 1606). She therefore feels like his kindness will stand in the way of them attaining their destiny as King and queen. Within the same scene, she refers to her plans as an 'illness', and this shows her willful intention, however lethal or unconventional, to make her husband; however, he is meant to be. She utilizes insults where she deemed necessary, encouraging words, and blackmail to force her husband into doing whatever it takes to be king. Her determination takes a malicious course, as she arrogantly admits that "That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold/ What hath quench'd them hath given me fire" (Shakespeare, 1606). She is now a beast that thrives in the agony of others. However, once she finally gets the power, she loses herself.

In an ironic turn of event, Macbeth succumbs to the insecurities that her newly acquired power causes. Power does not cater to her security needs, but rather escalates them to an unredeemable point. Her conscious-stricken character trait becomes her weakness, and she spends sleepless night sleepwalking, replaying her evil deeds and even washing imaginary blood off her hands. She, however, realizes that she is beyond salvation and commits suicide.

Lady Macbeth is one of the most influential female leads in Shakespeare's plays, and her character is utilized to cement and support several themes within the play. One such theme is the quest for power, and the unprecedented events it brings about. She takes on an ambition, determined and malicious trait as she propels the promise that the three witches granted her husband, built every time, she sinks deeper and deeper. The power she thought would bring her security, causes her immense damage to the point of taking her life.

Reference

Shakespeare W. (1606). The tragedy of Macbeth. http://shakespeare.mit.edu/macbeth/full.html