Greed for power and wealth in Macbeth The play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, illustrates how greed for power and wealth can lead to destruction of themselves and others. The play's central character, Macbeth, is not happy as a high-ranking lord, which leads him to murder Duncan to become king, unknowingly dooming himself. Throughout the play, many examples of Macbeth's unquenchable thirst for power are evident. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth was a kind and gentle person. The only time he killed was when he was in battle. Macbeth was loyal to the king (Duncan) and did as he wished. In battle, he kills a traitor to Scotland who was a high-ranking individual. For killing the traitor so bravely, Macbeth receives the title Thane of Cawdor. The irony of this situation is that the first title actually belonged to "a very disloyal traitor" (p. 3, line 53). While Macbeth returns home with his new title and many more ambitions. This is mainly due to the three witches telling him that he will become king. With this new ambition, Macbeth didn't know what to think and wrote a letter to his wife. By writing this letter, Macbeth showed that at this stage he was still loyal because he still shared everything with his wife. Macbeth at this point still had no lust for power. What drove him to become a power-hungry tyrant was his wife. She put ideas in his head that changed him. Macbeth had not spoken about killing the king the day before and now he was considering it. By killing the Duncan, gaining the title and king, and not being captured, Macbeth received a huge boost. He now felt invincible and let the power finally get to him and corrupt him. With this new amount of power, Macbeth was not willing to let it slip away. To protect his power, he did whatever was necessary. Macbeth cowardly had Banquo killed, going against everything he had ever believed. Killing Banquo was not enough for Macbeth. Shakespeare shows the audience how power can make a person rise higher in the world but at the same time make them more vulnerable. Macbeth was now vulnerable and to solve this problem he sent assassins to kill Macduff.