Ambition is a quality that enables man to evolve physically, and spiritually. However, in Shakespeare's tragic play of "Macbeth", it is not just pure ambition the protagonist embodies: his ambition further develops into hubris, which ultimately leads to his demise. Perhaps, the most valid reason for why "Macbeth" is so tragic, is the fact that Macbeth, in the incipient stages of the play, is so innocent and unworldly, as Lady Macbeth describes him: "like th'innocent …showed first 75 words of 1386 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1386 total…the development in Macbeth's character into a power-hungry tyrant. Against others, he may have been the "brave Macbeth", but when the enemy was the man himself, he never proved to be a worthy opponent. It seems that ambition has been given a bad reputation, for the character of Macbeth, due to its defects, was never the right medium to accommodate and, unlike that of Banquo, suppress its malice for the benefit of the greater good.