Napoleon Dynamite’s once said,“ Great ambition is the passion of great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them. ” Meaning that ambitions is a force that can alone endowed the promises of life. However, if overmastered it can lead to a sign of doom and destruction resulting, in one’s premature demise. This holds truth because both Gatsby and Macbeth were driving by ambition and power. The Great Gatsby was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald during the 1920s. It was a time of era in which many individuals wanted to forget about their past and re-live their lives.
Every individual had goals and ambitions to create an entirely different new live for them. Macbeth was written by William Shakespeare during the medieval ages. Shakespeare’s tragedy is based on real-live Scottish reality in which he teaches his audience a lesson on the devastating effects of ambition. In The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald and in Macbeth written by William Shakespeare many similarities and difference are exhibited among the protagonist through the recurring theme of the devastation that follows when one overrules their ambition.
One point of common sense among both works it that they both follow a goal to determine their course of lives in order to get what they want the most. In this case, Gatsby wanted to achieve the American dream. Gatsby’s American dream is rekindle his relationship with Daisy after five years of being without her. Daisy would not marry Gatsby because he was not of high class, so he linger himself into illegal acts to renovate himself to become a person of high class.
Gatsby “bought that house so that Daisy will be just across the bay,”(78) and he threw all those parties hoping that after “five years… she] could “come over” some afternoon,”(79) He was fascinated with the idea of her status and her money that he wanted to match up to her class. He described, “her voice of full of money”(120) meaning that he is not actually in love her but with the manifestation of her wealth. Daisy, just like Gatsby, only loves him for his money not for him.
She is in love with Tom because he actually came from old money she “did love him once-but [she] loved [Gatsby]too. (132) this emphasizes the theme. because Gatsby overpowered his amiton into getting connected into doing illegal acts in order for Daisy to notice but at the end Daisy chose to be with tom because of his old money. This shows that Gatsby’s ambition was driving by his American Dream to be with daisy but this led to his windfall of losing Daisy. The theme, that devastation follows when one overrules their ambition, is presented in Macbeth’s character. Macbeth’s ambition it to become Thane of Cawdor. He follows the witches prophecy and will not let anyone get in the way.
His ambition changed Mcbeth from a noble man to a man hungry for power . When the witches warned Macbeth,”Beware Macduff! /Beware the Thane of Fife! “(4,1,81-82) which indicates that he will not let anyone get in the way of becoming King. But, Macbeth’s ambition leads to the destruction of himself because Macduff kills him. He was driven by his ambition to have power that he dies trying to keep his title of King of Scotland. Macbeth’s ambition to follow the witches prophecies led to the destruction of himself because he executed everything that crossed his path from his kingdom.
In both works of literatures, Daisy and Lady Macbeth are also driven by their force of ambition. Both women strive to become rich,wealthy, and powerful and continue to push more and more in order to achieve their ambition. Daisy becomes unhappy with her relationship when she decided to start seeing Gatsby and she continues to love Tom Buchanan because “his family were enormously wealth'”(6) meaning that he was old money. While Gatsby got his money by selling” alcohol over the counter”(133) which indicates that he is new money.
So while Daisy appears to be in love with Gatsby it seem that she is more in love with his power and money. Daisy chose to be with the old money because even though Gatsby is new money she wanted Tom because he is well known among other and has a more highly powerful rule something Daisy desires. Daisy kept on pushing and pushing on her life which led to her downfall of going back to her sad and lonely life. The same goes with Lady Macbeth she wants to be viewed as a brave man instead of a weak women.
She accuses Macbeth as losing his manly traits “when you durst do it,then you were a man/And to be more than what you were, you would Be so much more than a man”(1,7,57-58) Indicating that Macbeth is weak for not being able to kill “Duncan {when he} is al sspe” (1,7,71) Macbeth fears that they will fail in the attempt of murdering Duncan and lady macbeth says that, “screw your courage to the sticking place/And we’ll not fail” (1,7,70-71) indicating that Lady Macbeth is the dominant role in the relationship because she likes to be in charge.
Lady Macbeth acts like this but at the end she is the one losing. By helping Macbeth murder duncan it guilted her business that led to her death , when Seyton announced that, “The Queen,my lord,is dead”(5,5,19) Lady Macbeth pushed and pushes to become powerful and it eventually led to her death. Both these feminine characters were driving by their ambitions to achieve their goals of ,becoming powerful, led to the destruction of their lives. ? In conclusion, both the protagonists goals enclose them to push them until their was no more pushing.
Neither Gatsby and Macbeth cared about anything else other than themselves they were fixated on conquering their goals that they lost themselves in a world that they did not belong in instead of focusing on the reality of their goals. Both characters worked hard to try to achieve their goals that led to the destruction of their lives. Lady Macbeth and Daisy became devour into their goals that they do not pay attention to the things that were happening around them and this led to their downfall. It is important to work on a goal but it is not a healthy lifestyle to become fixated in a goal.
