The Desire for Power (Macbeth)

Themes: Classical, Desire, Dramatic, Macbeth, Shakespeare
Length: 30 Seconds
Gender: Male

[Macbeth, alone on stage, contemplates the murder of King Duncan. His face is tense, his eyes wide with a mix of fear and ambition. He paces back and forth, speaking in a hushed, urgent tone, wrestling with his dark desire for power.]

If it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We’d jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison’d chalice
To our own lips.