Themes, Motifs & Symbols
Themes
Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.
The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition
The main theme of Macbeth—the destruction wrought when ambition goes unchecked by
moral constraints—finds its most powerful expression in the play’s two main characters.
Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil
deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better
judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he
descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Lady Macbeth, on the other hand,
pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the
repercussions of her immoral acts. One of Shakespeare’s most forcefully drawn female
characters, she spurs her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in
the murder’s aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of
Macbeth’s repeated bloodshed on her conscience. In each case, ambition—helped, of
course, by the malign prophecies of the witches—is what drives the couple to ever more
terrible atrocities. The problem, the play suggests, is that once one decides to use violence
to further one’s quest for power, it is difficult to stop. There are always potential threats to
the throne—Banquo, Fleance, Macduff—and it is always tempting to use violent means to
dispose of them.
The Relationship Between Cruelty and Masculinity
Characters in Macbeth frequently dwell on issues of gender. Lady Macbeth manipulates
her husband by questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself could be “unsexed,” and
does not contradict Macbeth when he says that a woman like her should give birth only to
boys. In the same manner that Lady Macbeth goads her husband on to murder, Macbeth
provokes the murderers he hires to kill Banquo by questioning their manhood. Such acts
show that both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity with naked aggression, and
whenever they converse about manhood, violence soon follows. Their understanding of
manhood allows the political order depicted in the play to descend into chaos.
At the same time, however, the audience cannot help noticing that women are also sources
of violence and evil. The witches’ prophecies spark Macbeth’s ambitions and then
encourage his violent behavior; Lady Macbeth provides the brains and the will behind her
husband’s plotting; and the only divine being to appear is Hecate, the goddess of
witchcraft. Arguably, Macbeth traces the root of chaos and evil to women, which has led
