Macbeth: Downfall Due to Ambition and Human Weakness William Shakespeare through one of his most well known plays portrays a tragic downfall of a king through his ambition and human weakness. Shakespeare develops the play Macbeth by showing the changes in the protagonist and the effects others have on him. Shakspeare's use of detail helps to show the changes in Macbeth through a gradual process. Before actually completing his horrendous act of killing the much loved King Duncan, Macbeth suffers mental conflict "having no spurs to prick the side of my intent" between the "vaulting ambition which leaps over itself and falls on the oth