“Significant ideas are raised in plays”
Discuss significant ideas in Macbeth

Throughout the Elizabethan era, literary work was written for performance on the stage in order to entertain an audience. These performances, known as plays raise significant ideas that are the underpinning issue or idea that propels and sustains the play. As time passes, different generations look at the significant ideas in Shakespeare with new eyes, redefining and reinterpreting as influenced by the political, social and cultural conditions of each era. These significant ideas that are raised in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth (1606) include supernatural, ambition and temptation, and violence.

Macbeth introduces an element of fantasy into the normal tragedy narrative through the characters of the witches. The witches are important figures in the play, as their function is both to predict Macbeth’s fate and to signal to the reader what is to come. Far from serving as a distracting element, the witches help focus the audience on some of the darker and more sinister aspects of the play. Shakespeare’s use of this supernatural idea is raised throughout the entire play. If the witches’ prophecy is understood to be imposing a supernatural order on the natural order of things, the natural order can also be understood as responding with tempestuous signs. Following Duncan’s death, Lennox describes the “unruly” night in detail and his personal emotions. Similarly, Ross notes that “the heavens, as troubled with man’s act, / Threatens his bloody stage”. In the same scene, the Old Man and Ross both agree that they saw horses eat each other. Even the events leading to the conclusion of the play can be understood as a negotiation of the natural and supernatural. Whereas Macbeth believes that he will live the “lease of nature”— since Birnam Wood cannot possible come to Dunsinane Hill—the forest is literally uprooted by the English army in accordance with the prophecy, which forces the audience to relate to the supernatural words of the witches. The contrast between the natural and the supernatural forms a backdrop that suggests Macbeths exaggerated proportions of the struggle over the role of king.
In medieval times, it was believed that the health of a country was directly related to the goodness and moral legitimacy of its king. If the King was good and just, then the nation would have good harvests and good weather. If there was political order, then there would be natural order. Macbeth shows this connection between the political and natural world: “Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown /And put a barren scepter in my grip, /Thence to be wrenched with an unlineal hand“. Macbeth disrupts the social and political order by murdering Duncan and taking up the throne, resulting with the nature going haywire. Incredible storms rage, the earth tremors, animals go insane and eat each other. We are also shown that the characters are aware of this change due to the idea of supernatural by the way they talk about nature. Duncan and Malcolm use nature metaphors when they speak of kingship—they see themselves as gardeners and want to make their realm grow and flower. In contrast, Macbeth and Lady Macbeth either try to hide from nature (wishing the stars would disappear) or to use nature to hide their cruel designs (being the serpent hiding beneath the innocent flower). The implication is that Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, once they’ve given themselves to the extreme selfishness of ambition, have themselves become unnatural. The unnatural events of the physical world emphasize the horror of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s acts, and mirrors the warping of their souls by ambition.

Within the play Macbeth, Shakespeare shows us the idea of ambition, and the possibility for ambition to turn to greed, and for power to corrupt us. Ambition and temptation both play a key factor in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s decision to kill Duncan. Macbeth possesses enough self-awareness to realize the dangers of ambition: “I have no spur / To prick the sides of my intent, but only / Vaulting ambition which o’erleaps itself / And falls on th’other” . And yet, the temptation to carry out the witches' prophecy is ultimately too strong for Macbeth to curb his ambition. In Lady Macbeth’s vocabulary, “hope” is also another word for “ambition” and possibly “temptation.” As Macbeth expresses his doubts about killing Duncan, she demands: “Was the hope drunk / Wherein you dressed yourself”. Lady Macbeth metaphorically expresses how she relys on alcohol to make her ambitious before executing her powerful and murderous plans, and how her lack of ambition resulted in guilt, after assisting with the death of King Duncan. Lady Macbeth finds that she is unable to cope with the consequences of her own "hope." Ultimately, ambition and temptation prove fatal for both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
The witch’s prophecies manipulate both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth to try to fulfill their ambitions, even though the witches never force any actions onto them. Macbeth and his wife act on their own to fulfill their deepest desires. Macbeth, a good general and, by all accounts before the action of the play, a good man, allows his ambition to overwhelm him and becomes a murdering, paranoid maniac. Lady Macbeth, once she begins to put into actions the once-hidden thoughts of her mind, is crushed by guilt.
Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth want to be great and powerful, and sacrifice their morals to achieve that goal. By contrasting these two characters with others in the play, such as Banquo, Duncan, and Macduff, who also want to be great leaders but refuse to allow ambition to come before honor, Macbeth shows how naked ambition, freed from any sort of moral or social conscience, ultimately takes over every other characteristic of a person. Unchecked ambition, Macbeth suggests, can never be fulfilled, and therefore quickly grows into a monster that will destroy anyone who gives into it. The result of Macbeth’s over-ambition results in the idea of violence dominating the plays storyline.

Violence and the bloodshed that results are important ideas in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. Macbeth is a very violent character and exemplifies this throughout the play. Primarily, after Macbeth and the Scottish army defeat Macdonwald’s army, another bleeding character enters the scene and describes the courage of Macbeth and Banquo in battle when he states, "For brave Macbeth /Disdaining Fortune, with his brandished steel/ Which smoked with bloody execution/ Like valor’s minion carved out his passage”. By showing his acts of bravery and by winning honor for his country, Macbeth is crowned Thane of Cawdor. The violence, though it takes place off stage, is described as being very gory and murderous. Macbeth is a very skilled warrior and begins to take pleasure in killing people. Violence begins to completely consume the thoughts and actions of Macbeth. For instance, before Duncan’s murder, Macbeth imagines seeing a dagger floating in the air before him as he says, “I see thee still;/ And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,/ Which was not so before. There’s no such thing”. Shakespeare’s use of violent imagery allows the audience to experience the hallucination that Macbeth is experiencing, and how the idea of violence is significantly relevant. Macbeth’s desire for control stimulates his violent behavior. The violence that Macbeth causes in the lives of others also fatefully impacts his own life.

Through Shakespeare’s many plays, we are presented with a diverse range of significant ideas. These ideas are usually relatable to our own lives, and as an audience allow us to compare the realistic situations that occurred in the Elizabethan era to those of the 21st century in which we experience. The ideas of supernatural, ambition and temptation, and violence are greatly significant in the play Macbeth.