Significance of knocking in Macbeth

In act 2 Macbeth kills Duncan with the dagger of the guards and kills the guards to make it look like the guards were responsible for the murder. After Macbeth murders Duncan he starts to hear a knocking. Macbeth is startled and shaken by the knocking. In my opinion the knocking is a symbol for Macbeth’s conscience knocking on his morale door. Macbeth becomes worried about the murder and feels that no amount of water can wash off the blood on his hands or the guilt. Macbeth’s conscience has just showed up and made Macbeth regret his actions. Macbeth says “ Wake Duncan with thy knocking. I would thou couldst.” In saying this it is clear that macbeth wishes that the knocking would wake Duncan but he knows it can’t because he is dead. Macbeth wishes that Duncan would wake up and that macbeth would be free of his guilt and paranoia. When Macduff sees that Macbeth is awake he thinks it is because the knocking has awoken him. The knocking didn’t wake Macbeth from his sleep but the knocking awoke his conscience. Macbeth’s conscience has been awoken and he realizes the gravity of the crime he has committed. It is now apparent that Macbeth has a conscience but before it was asleep. The cruelty of the murders he committed and the knocking on the door awoke Macbeth’s conscience. But it is now too late for Macbeth to develop a conscience because Duncan is dead and the deed is done. He must now face the world with the guilt of the crime he committed.

Macbeth Pre-Reading

Ambition is the strong desire to do or achieve something and I believe that ambition can be both positive and negative. An example of how ambitions lead to negative results is found in the story of David Johnstone and John Hoare. David had an ambition to row across the Atlantic Ocean; it had only been done once before but for whatever reason he had to do it. His strong desire to row the ocean caused him to spend all of his money on a boat and find a partner. After a lot of hard work and generosity of the people, John and David were able to launch from America on their way to Great Britain. They rowed somewhat successfully for a while until a storm hit and the boat was lost in the unforgiving ocean. Sure this is an extreme case of a failure in ambition but nonetheless it proves my point. David had an ambition to row the ocean and this desire resulted in his death. Ambition for smaller things like fortune can also result negatively if it causes you to take risks or ignore other aspects of your life. Even if you succeed in your ambition to achieve something like wealth the outcome can be negative if you have lost friends and experiences along the way. On the other hand ambition can be positive when you work hard for your goal without losing sight of what’s really important. An example of positive ambition is in Terry Fox: he had a desire to run across Canada to raise money and awareness for cancer research. Terry had a desire to raise cancer awareness and even though he eventually died he succeeded in his goal. I think ambition will only result in a positive outcome if there is reason for your desire, maybe if David were rowing the ocean to raise awareness for Cancer research he would have achieved his goal. Knowing his desire was bigger than himself maybe he would have rowed fast enough to beat the storm instead of taking his time. Perhaps wanting something for a reason makes it more possible for you to succeed.