William Shakespeare, writer of the most well known poetry of all times and whose travesties are legendary wrote the play of Macbeth. Macbeth is considered to be one of Shakespeare's four principle tragedies. In this play, Macbeth, thane of Scotland, becomes obsessed with the Weird Sister's prophecies and his own lust for power. Ultimately it is this need for power that consumes him. The combination of influence from the Weird Sisters and Lady Macbeth only feeds Macbeth's burning ambition and in the end, it is the power that destroys him.
             Very early on in the play, Macbeth is confronted by the three witches, otherwise known as the Weird Sisters. As Macbeth rides forward from the gloom of the night they greet him "All hail to thee". Right away Macbeth thinks fondly of the Weird Sisters who praise him so regal. It is then that the three witches make their prophecy about Macbeth's rise to power. Though Macbeth is wary at first, he desires power so greatly that it is easy to forget precautions. At a later time, Macbeth is promoted to thane of Cawdor, fulfilling a prediction of the prophecy. With this fulfillment, Macbeth's confidence in the witches grows, just as the seed of greed and ambition within his mind blossoms.
             To obtain the power of a king, which Macbeth desires intensely, he is required to kill his fellow king, under his own roof, his own "protection". But Macbeth was not at all fond of that notion. But understand, though Macbeth had driving ambition and an unhealthy need for dominance, it does not make him a murderer. He was in-fact a noble man who had a sense of dignity about him. But the cold counterpart to Macbeth was his wife. "Lady Macbeth, whose obdurate strength of will and masculine firmness give her the ascendancy over her husband's faltering virtue." Lady Macbeth exhibits a striking contrast to the cold, abstracted, gratuitous, servile malignity of the witche...