Ambition is a drive that can be used in multiple ways, for better or worse. Though it requires a balance between intention and morality. If one outweighs the other, negative consequences will arise. In the topics I’ll be talking about: The play Macbeth, the poem Ozymandias, the show Arrow and the movie Gattaca all have ambition as the central theme. Each topic has a different perspective on the idea of ambition and shows us the differing ways it can affect us. Ambition is a drive that, if used correctly, can help us achieve our greatest goals.
Macbeth, a play created 400 years ago shows us that ambition can have negative side effects. In the beginning Macbeth is a fearless warrior but due to his ambition for power and riches, he makes irrational decisions which diminishes him into a cowardly man of despair. One of the symbols used to convey ambition is a dagger. This dagger symbolizes betrayal moments before Macbeth kills king Duncan. It made him second guess his intentions. However his intention outbalanced his morality and he proceeded to murder Duncan for power and riches. In the end he came to regret the actions he took. He found it wasn’t worth it. Every choice he made in the play was based on ambition and they led him to his own demise.
Using ambition to become king was what Macbeth did, Ozymandias took it a step further. This poem was written 200 years ago and is about a traveller who describes a statue he saw in a desert. The statue represents Ozymandias who was once a king. He had the passion, the ambition to become “King of Kings’ ‘ He wanted his name and legacy to be remembered throughout history but that did not come to be. All that Ozymandias became was a broken statue in the middle of a desert. The poem conveys that it doesn’t matter how ambitious you are, what motives you have, you will inevitably come to nothing. The symbol used to emphasize this idea is where the statue is located: alone in a desert. It symbolises that Ozymandias is forgotten, and his legacy disintegrated into nothing. The time you have on Earth is limited so choose carefully what you want to do with it.
Ozymandias didn’t believe that and nor did Prometheus. Adrien Chase, who is Prometheus, is the villain in season 5 of the tv show Arrow. Arrow is about a billionaire known as Oliver Queen who has the secret identity of an archer. Oliver killed Adrien’s father 4 years prior which set him out on the ultimate quest of vengeance. Adrien created an ambition driven from hate. It was so powerful he created a master plan on torturing Oliver. He spent years perfecting it. He physically and mentally tortured Oliver, used his family against him and had a backup plan for everything. Adrien’s goal was to get Oliver to confess he kills for fun and realise he is actually the bad guy. Unlike most villains in the movie world, Prometheus bet the hero. Adrien’s ambition to destroy Oliver was unmatched. In the end Prometheus shot himself to get further into Oliver’s head mentally. He invested all of his life’s means into proving Oliver that he is a bad person. The season showed Adrien’s conflict of ambition through the battles that happened between him and Oliver. They were both archers which made it look like Adrien was fighting himself, or in a deeper manner, he was fighting his morality. Adrien threw away everything to prove his point to Oliver, he threw away his humanity. Was that worth it?
In those 3 topics their intentions outweighed their moralities and the characters put their time into the wrong things. Vincent doesn’t do that in the movie Gattaca. This 1997 film is set in the future where your genetics determine your rights in society. The main character, Vincent, is born without genetic selection which is uncommon in the future. For all his life he had the ambition to leave Earth and become a space navigator. He had multiple flaws in his genetics so it was practically impossible for him to achieve his goal. However he does achieve his dream of going into space. All because of his ambition to do so. He knew it was his purpose. Symbols for ambition came up all through the film. Skylights were one of the recurring symbols. Sylights are ceiling windows which aim up at the sky. The skylights symbolise Vincent’s ambition to go up to space. Gattaca reflects that a person’s worth is no greater than their ambitions. You can only achieve as high as the goal you’ve set and Gattaca shows that through the film.
Macbeth, Ozymandias, Arrow and Gattaca all conveyed ambition in different ways. It is a versatile emotion that can have negative or positive effects. Literature has evolved over centuries but the idea of ambition has remained constant. The topics have ambition as the central theme and makes us more aware that there is a balance that is needed between Intention and morality.