How Ambition Leads To Tragedy In Macbeth
Greedy for the crown, a displeased man, who is extremely susceptible to pressure, loses his morality. Several centuries later, a girl, who from an early age learned to transfer her rage into a fearsome ambition, is propelled into taking part in an unthinkable crime.
The iconic tragedy, Macbeth is possibly one of the most recognised works of renowned playwright, William Shakespeare. Written sometime early in the 17th century, the play demonstrates the destructive physical and emotional effects of political ambition on those who strive for power for their own sake. It follows the story of a Scottish general named Macbeth, who receives a prophecy from witches stating that one day he will become king of Scotland. Consumed by ambition, Macbeth murders the current king and acquires the Scottish throne for himself. Craig Gillespie’s biographical film, I, Tonya, also features a protagonist fuelled by ambition. In the 2017 film, figure skater Tonya Harding finds herself struggling to break free from her impoverished Oregon origins. Constantly exploited her controlling mother and abusive husband, Tonya wanted new ways to distinguish herself. Her talent on the ice should have brought with it international glory, but due to her unwitting implications in the 1994 assault on fellow skater Nancy Kerrigan, she became embroiled in controversy.
Both Shakespeare and Gillepsie develop the concept of unchecked ambition and its consequences through two outwardly different characters. They invite the audience to recognise that both Macbeth and Tonya struggle to maintain their morality and act irrationally to get what they want.
It is important to note that the legal system that was in place during Shakespeare’s era was considerably different from the one used today. Punishment differed according to the social status of the culprit- nobles who violated the law were often able to escape punishment by buying their way out of it or by appealing to their connections with the clergy or the monarchy (Anon., 1998). In Macbeth, Shakespeare represents power as a right in which one should not meddle, lest tragedy should arise. Such a representation clearly reflects the socio- cultural views of the Elizabethan error with regards to power; and therefore in Macbeth, the audience can successfully predict that Macbeth’s taking of the Scottish throne will eventually lead to his ruin. The damage created when ambition goes unchecked by moral constraints, finds its powerfully represented in the play’s two main characters. Macbeth is not instinctively inclined to perform evil acts, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. Viewers are exposed to the persuasive and emotive techniques Lady Macbeth utilises to manipulate Macbeth to commit murder: “and live a coward in thine own esteem”, and “you would be so much more the man” (Shakespeare, 2005).
Macbeth’s ambition to be king is problematic in the context of Elizabethan society, as Elizabethans believed in a hierarchical world, called the Great Chain of Being, where everything and everyone has its position- from minerals to God. In this context Macbeth should not even have an ambition to be king. It’s an offensive act to even think about moving up a step to be king. Macbeth appears to accept these limitations at the start of the play when he says “ to be king stands not within the prospects of belief not more to be Cawdor” (Shakespeare, 2005). However when Macbeth hears he has been made Thane of Cawdor, it gives the witches immediate credibility and in Macbeth’s mind is linked to becoming king (Elliott, 2019).
Similarly, it is suggested that Tonya Harding, in the film I, Tonya also appears to contradict the theory of the Great Chain of Being, as she herself says “my entire life I’ve been told I wouldn’t amount to anything, but you know what? Maybe I would” (I, Tonya, 2018). She is motivated to rise above the emotional abuse from her mother and husband, seeking new ways to distinguish herself on the ice. While Harding’s mother attests that her cruelty is intended to encourage Tonya: “you skated like a graceless bull dyke” (I, Tonya, 2018), it can be suggested that her taunts were intended to pressure Tonya to succeed at almost any cost. Given her troubled upbringing, challenging marriage and competition experience; it is suggested Harding’s desire for recognition and acceptance were a powerful motivation, adding fuel to the skater’s drive for success. It is clear that both Tonya and Macbeth struggle with aggressive relatives who add pressure to their thwarted ambition.
Unlike Macbeth, Tonya is not morally virtuous. The film shows her challenging the epitome e of the innocent female victim. She is aggressive and very complicated. Having grown up socially remote without necessities, and training for numerous hours on the ice every day, Tonya responds to her husband’s abuse by fighting back. Gillespie has a clever way of ensuring that Tonya desperately empathetic even if she isn’t the most trusted of narrators. The moments where Tonya stares into the camera lens are powerful, as it’s impossible not to share her sense of frustration and in justice. Macbeth however, is appalled to think of what he has done to Duncan “what hands are here? Ha: they pluck out mine eyes” (Shakespeare, 2005).
Every action always has a reaction; this is displayed in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. In the play, Lady Macbeth is the ambition that leads her husband to grave error. The murder results in a series of consequences for the characters, these actions then lead to negative repercussions. Macbeth after his crime was haunted by extreme guilt and became habituated to death and killing, this then resulted in his own demise. Lady Macbeth uses mockery and convinced her husband into killing king Duncan, even when her adversities were brought up by herself, she suffered from guilt and ultimately lead to her own death. Gillespie’s film I, Tonya, explores an unwelcoming affect that was not self-inflicted. Harding suffers tremendous consequence, and experiences a downfall in her career, that she herself believes had nothing to do with the situation.
Shakespeare and Gillepsie ultimately wrote stories of how unchecked ambition can lead to tragedy. Ambition can give us a purpose in life for what we believe in, but when such determination makes you act absurdly it can turn a blind eye to everything that could possibly accompany, and run the risk of setting ourselves up for failure.
