Rational decisions always have consequences. In the play Macbeth, a good king is killed by a man whose biggest desire is to be king, Macbeth. Lady Macbeth, his wife, wants to be queen, so she helps her husband plan the murder of Duncan. Once the old king is killed, Macbeth reigns over Scotland and is a complete tyrant. When the power and guilt finally get to his head, Macduff kills Macbeth and ends his dictatorship ways. In the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare, he uses Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to represent the dangers of unchecked ambition.
Murder is an example of an action that was done with unchecked ambition with many consequences. Lady Macbeth plans the murder of Duncan because of her overwhelming desire to be queen. “That tend on moral thoughts, unsex me here,/and fill me from the crown to the toe” (I, v, 41-42). Lady Macbeth wants to be “unsexed” because if she was turned into a man so she could kill Duncan herself. She wants to be crowned from head to toe meaning that she wants to be seen as royalty to everyone. All this insanity of being queen and the guilt of planning Duncan’s death eventually leads to Lady Macbeths suicide. As Lady Macbeth felt guilt after Duncan’s death, so did Macbeth. Even though Macbeth is so much closer to power, he feels an overwhelming guilt because he killed Duncan. Even before the murder, just thinking about killing someone he looked up to, was ripping Macbeth apart.
Is this a dagger which I see before me,
the handle toward my hand?
Come let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still
art thou not, fatal vision, sensible” (II, i, 33-36).
Macbeth imagines floating daggers in front of him as he is waiting for Lady Macbeth to ring the bell so he could have to clear to commit the murder. The floating daggers are just an illusion, and are also a sign to him that he should kill Duncan, but a sign to the reader that killing Duncan will lead Macbeth to go insane eventually. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth go...