Lily Sahakian

6/2/2015
Period 2
Synthesis Essay
Throughout the books Fences, by August Wilson, and Macbeth, by
Shakespeare, many characters carry an ambition. Although many characters had
ambitions, some of their ambitions ended with disasters, and some ended with
success. Writers from different eras explore ambition by showing people have
different motivations, like greed versus necessity, and depending on your
motivation the outcomes may vary.
Lady Macbeth and Rose had their own ambitions and because of their
different motivations there were different results. Roses ambition was to just be
happy and satisfied with life. While Lady Macbeths ambition was to take over the
kingdom simply because she wanted power. Although Roses ambition isnt
necessarily a necessity, it is something most normal people look for in life. Yet Lady
Macbeths ambition is motivated by pure greed. In order to achieve her ambition for
power, she made Macbeth do all of her dirty work. The plan to kill Duncan (in order
for Macbeth to become king) was done by Macbeth and when he backed out Lady
Macbeth said, Wouldst thou have that. Which thou esteemst the ornament of life,
and live a coward in thine own esteem (Act 1, Scene 7). This quote is basically
saying will you take the crown or be a coward, she said it to make him feel bad
about backing out because she is greedy and wants the power. And since Lady
Macbeth is so manipulative, Macbeth being king is also Lady Macbeth having just as
much power. So eventually Lady Macbeth achieves her ambition and Macbeth
claims the crown, yet it is not quite a happy ending. Lady Macbeth is filled with guilt
and kills herself. When ambition is led by greed it gets out of hand because the
greed changes peoples morals and clouds peoples judgment which will leads to
failure most of the time. Rose had a happier ending, she ends up getting what she

Lily Sahakian
6/2/2015
Period 2
wants. Rose was miserable, her husband cheated on her, her family was constantly
fighting and she was left alone a lot of the time. Yet for her ambition of happiness,
rose didnt leave Troy and go out being careless. She just let fate take its course.
She wasnt being greedy about anything, its not much too just ask for happiness in
life. Yet everything worked out perfectly, because she has a healthy baby and she is
happy.
Macbeth and Troy are very similar, many would say they are both bad people.
They hurt others and made careless decisions. But there are still differences in their
motivations and the ambitions them self. Macbeths ambition was to gain power, just
like Lady Macbeths But the thing was, Macbeths motivation was Lady Macbeth. She
pushed him into doing these bad things, like killing people for power, and when he
chickened out she would make him feel bad about himself. But that just got him
started, after that he started doing things on his own will to gain power and take
over the kingdom by being a murderer. When Macbeth first killed Duncan he felt
terrible and was freaking out yet now hell make assurance double sure... Thou
shalt not live, that I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies, and sleep in spite of thunder
(Act 4, Scene 1). He is explaining that he is going to kill Macduff just to be safe and
so he can sleep better at night, even though its unnecessary. Again just like Lady
Macbeth, his greed got the best of him and he failed to meet his ambition. So over
all Macbeth wasnt a very good person. Troy, still not the best person, had different
ambitions. He wanted to have more money and support. But the thing is, he didnt
really do anything to become more successful, he always complained about being
poor, I aint got no extra money (19). Troy would just go and do whatever he
wanted, and hurt others along the way. He cheated on his wife, and fought with his

Lily Sahakian
6/2/2015
Period 2
family. In the end Troy ended up dying just like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth because
his greed and hard headedness clouded his judgement making his ambitions harder
to achieve.
Overall there are many ways one could interpret others ambition. But in these
books, both modern and older eras displayed a connection between the motivation
for the ambition, the ambition itself, and the outcome of the ambition.