The theme of ambition is important in the lives of any individual, including all of us. In today’s world, and in the past, ambition has come in two forms: positive and negative. Therefore the theme of ambition is prominent in many texts both classic and modern, and has been a common theme in literature for centuries. This is shown through texts such as Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth,” written in 1606. The protagonist Macbeth, possesses the negative form of ambition and builds himself up so high, until his blind ambition leads to the deterioration of his mind. This form of ambition is also shown in Percy Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” which carries a similar theme where all that is left of a once magnificent empire is a single crumbled statue. On the other hand, Andrew Niccol’s film “Gattaca,”portrays positive ambition, although it can too, be seen in a different light and in ways is similar to Macbeth, in that they both go to extreme lengths to get what they want. This is also shown in Antonio Iturbe’s novel “The Librarian of Auschwitz,” where Dita Kraus strives to help make the lives of the children in Block 31 in Auschwitz better, even though this puts her at risk herself.

Percy Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias” is telling the story of a king with negative ambition. The poem describes the remnants of a statue “on the sand, half sunk” with a plaque that reads “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: look on my works ye Mighty and despair.” This portrays that Ozymandias was once an ambitious and cruel king with a “frown, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command” but whose ambition overtook him and left only a crumbled statue of his once magnificent empire. This evidence of negative ambition is supported by Shelley’s use of strong imagery of a dusty, sandy desert. “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone stand in the desert… near them on the sand, a shattered visage lies” is using imagery of sand or dust to give us the image of a deserted, desolate place, which may be used to represent all that has been lost. Ultimately, Ozymandias’s ambition led to his downfall.

Like Ozymandias, Macbeth became king and had the ambition to do so. It is known to us that this happened through darker methods. Initially, Macbeth was a valiant soldier and the “Thane of Glamis.” Later on in the play when he had gained the titles of “Thane of Cawdor” for his bravery in battle, and King, he was “in blood stepped in so far, that should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as to go o’er.” This shows that he used to a be a solider who killed in battle, but now kills purely to satisfy his own ambition, which is an example of some laws being able to be broken without breaking morality, and breaking morality is what Macbeth began to do throughout the play. At the beginning of the play, his mental state was stable, but throughout the play it becomes clear to us that his mental state is beginning to deteriorate due to his blind ambition. As Macbeth began to break morality more and more, it drastically impacted his mental stability, leaving him “fall’n to the sere, the yellow leaf,” with none of “that which should accompany old age, as honour, love, obedience, troops of friends.” This is a comparison between his life and a discarded autumn leaf, left to wither away on the ground with nothing that old age should bring him, and shows that throughout the play all the dark deeds he has committed to get to the point of being king have affected him mentally and emotionally. This, as in Ozymandias, is supported by Shakespeare’s use of imagery around dust. “And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death” gives us the idea that his mind has been deserted and he has lost everyone meaningful to him, such as his wife, and represents all that he has lost due to his ambition. It also suggests that after all the dark deeds he committed to get to king, his greed for power and ambition to become king overcame him and left him close to death and with a life lacking substance. 

In Gattaca, Vincent’s ambition lead to him finally travelling to space, though in order to do so he had to break the law. Vincent was a god-child, known to the vast majority of the world as an invalid. He was a child not born through eugenics, but naturally. Due to this he struggled in society, which measured social status and self-worth through an individual’s genetic code. Set in the not too distant future, eugenics had become the most common way of having children, and invalids were often thought of as lower-class citizens. They were highly discriminated against and destined for low-grade work. Although this is what Vincent’s life was destined to be, he was able to achieve his life long goal of travelling to space through his everlasting ambition, and like Macbeth, his willingness to go to extreme lengths such as obtaining a new identity of a valid. Vincent’s status as an invalid left him unable to get into the space training program, and after being told by many that he wasn’t good enough, that he “shouldn’t clean the glass too well” because he might get ideas, that even the highest test score couldn’t get him into the space training program, he overcame this and his ambition and “love of the planets” and “growing dislike for this one” pulled him through and made him more ambitious than ever. This would be extremely hard because in reality when someone tells you that you aren’t good enough, you often begin to believe it. I’m sure everyone has experienced this in some point of their life. The fact that Vincent goes to extreme lengths to obtain a new identity and defies the law and all those at Gattaca is similar to Macbeth in the extreme lengths he goes to in order to achieve the position of king, and while this, as was the case with Macbeth, was selfish, it does not break morality and illustrates the fact that there are societal laws which can be broken without breaking morality. I’m sure you will all agree that this is an interesting concept.

The Librarian of Auschwitz by Antonio Iturbe is the unforgettable tale of fourteen year old Dita Kraus who is one of the many imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp in world war two. “In Auschwitz, human life has so little value that no one is shot anymore; a bullet is more valuable than a human being.” Like the invalids in Gattaca, the Jewish people were highly discriminated against, treated like second class citizens and eventually imprisoned in concentration camps such as Auschwitz, where death was very common. This tale describes the secret school and library that had been established in Block 31 of the camp. Eight books had been smuggled into the camp, and Dita was asked to be the “librarian” of them. She was told “but it’s dangerous. Very dangerous. Handling books here is no game. If the SS catches anyone with a book they execute them.’ Not even this fazed her, and she devoted all her effort into taking great care of the books because “in this incredibly dark place, they were a reminder of less sombre times, when words rang out more loudly than machine guns.” Both Gattaca and the Librarian of Auschwitz have societies ruled by an individual’s race, with one race being superior to the other. Through this it is seen in both that the protagonists both have ambition to do what makes them happy even though they are breaking the law which, in both texts is very dangerous.

All of the texts place emphasis and importance on ambition. It makes me realise that in reality, ambition is a key aspect in the lives of everybody and is present throughout the whole world. We all have ambitions within us, and although those may not be as extreme as wanting overall power in society, these ambitions will play a great part in shaping who we become.