Using the characters, ambition is used strongly throughout both Macbeth and The Tell Tale Heart. Macbeth, through his ambition, goes from being a dedicated and honourable soldier to being a murderer and traitor. The first performance of Macbeth was in 1623 and it was written in 1606. The Tell Tale Heart was released in 1843. There are several quotes explaining the ambitions of the characters. You can also discover ambition by looking in quotations for symbolism, foreshadowing, repetition, metaphors, allusion and personification. Including ideas, language characteristic, stylistic features and conventions, there are many similarities between the two.
Macbeth was written by Shakespeare and it is about a powerful man called Macbeth. He received a wish from three witches that one day he would become king of Scotland. Macbeth was lead by ambition and his wife told him to behave. Macbeth murdered king Duncan and that made him the king. After doing this, he had so much guilt and anxiety. The Tell Tale Heart was written by an author named Edgar Allan Poe. This short story is about an unnamed character who murders an elderly guy with a ‘vulture eye’. This murder was accurately calculated as he managed to kill him and then cut him into chunks and proceeded to hid the remains under the floorboards. Macbeth was produced for a high-class audience while The Tell Tale Heart was directed more at mature adults. Shakespeare actually produced Macbeth as a tribute for King James who was Englands New Monarch. Shakespeare included lots of aspects whilst writing the play that would appeal to the king. Some of these include witchcraft and ancestry. There was many themes written about that nobody would ever speak about. Edgar Allan Poe wrote The Tell Tale Heart as a way to tell people about a dark side of the human brain. William Shakespeare was an English poet who was also an actor and playwright. He was named the greatest writer in the English language. Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer who was also an editor and literacy critic. Poe was best know for his short stories, poetry and particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.
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“Two truths are told as happy prologues to the swelling act of h’imperial theme.” Macbeth was the character that spoke these lines. They were spoken as Macbeth realised that the wish the witches made, came true. The wish was that he would be Thane of Cawdor. Another wish that the witches had made was that Macbeth would become king and he immediately wonders if tis would be true soon too. The determination with which he turns to this concept indicates that he finds the option appealing, although he understands that in order to accomplish the place he would have to commit a dreadful and violent act. These particular lines reveal Macbeths ambition and it foreshadows his behaviour earlier. “To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus.” This is also a line showing ambition by Macbeth. This was spoken after he became king. This quote implies that he has been left more anxious than before and has not be brought to peace. This is giving into his ambition about murdering Duncan.
Both of the main characters in The Tell Tale Heart and Macbeth are very similar. Both characters are written with some of the same characteristics which then lead forward onto their ambitions. Ambition is used in most of the scenes throughout the entire play. Macbeths guilt over murdering king Duncan lead him to having hallucinations. His wife also gets hallucinations which drives her to insanity and then finally, suicide. Lady Macbeth says “What’s done/cannot be undone.” This was said in act five scene one as her suit continues tormenting her. Lady Macbeth is his wife who is the one encouraging Macbeth to overcome his sense of guilt and to take action on the prohencies. “The prince of Cumberland! That is a step on which I must fall down , or else overlap, for in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires; let not light see my black and deep desires. The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.” This quotation is so powerful as it is talking about Macbeth describing his ambition as being ‘black and deep desires’ which makes it not quite sound right. This quote was spoken in act one scene 4. “To prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition, which overlaps itself and falls on the other.” This quote was spoken because Macbeth was trying to think about whether or not there was an actual good reason to be killing Duncan. This one was spoken in act two seen four which implies that ambition is used in almost every single act. This shows what an important and strong character Macbeth really was. “For his gold I had no desire. I think it was his eye! He had the eye of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon on me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees-very gradually i made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus myself of the eye forever.” In The Tell Tale Heart this is the most powerful quote because the unnamed character is explains about what the man looks like before immediately saying that he was going to take the life of the old man.
Overall, both texts show ambition but sometimes it can be in a different way from the other. It is shown by the use of the characters intentions. There are many literacy techniques that it is shown in. One of the most used one is repetition. In both texts, repetition is shown a large amount and thats including it being related to the characters ambition and also not related.
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