Ambition is one thing, murdering out of fear is quite
another.
It is quite correct to say that, in the beginning,
after he is tempted by the witches, Macbeth thinks about killing Duncan in order to
become king himself (Act 1, scene 3):
My thought, whose murder yet is but
fantastical,
Shakes so my single state of man that
function
Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing
is
But what is
not.
But Lady Macbeth is
right: her husband is not cruel enough to kill for what he sort of wants. No, it is Lady
Macbeth's "vaulting ambition" that ultimately propells Macbeth to do the deed. In fact,
he knows of her desires and tells her pointedly, in Act 2, "We will proceed no further
in this business." Then he gives her all kinds of very good reasons why they should not
kill the king, but she prevails and manupulates him into doing the
murder.
Macbeth is not ambitions, he is weak. Yes, the
great and brave warrior is weak compared to his overbearingly ambitious wife. After the
murder, fear overtakes Macbeth, and what looks like a wll to power is not ambition but a
ferocious attemp to be safe at all costs: "For mine own good/All causes shall give
way."
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