When the Lights Came On

Shakespeare frames ambition not as inherently noble nor inherently corrupt, but as a force whose moral colour is set by the soil it grows in. In Macbeth's case, the soil is barren: he has honour without purpose, courage without conviction. When the witches plant the seed — "All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter" — the ambition that takes root is not built on service but on self.

Lady Macbeth makes this explicit. She fears her h