Text 1; Macbeth (Macbeth)

Text 2; King (Ozymandias)

Text 3; Vincent Freeman (Gattaca)

Text 4; Omen Darkly (Skulduggery Pleasant)

With Macbeth and Ozymandias both were striving to improve themselves and nothing else, Macbeth in very inhuman ways and probably no different for Ozymandias.

For Macbeth what was quite ironic was that during his drive to gain as much power as he could at any cost, the infrastructure of the society he was running and his relations with his friends were major factures that contributed to his downfall and death. This is similar for Ozymandias’s king of the city of sand, obviously if the king was a good king and deserved the statue the city would still be there but all that is left is a scorching dessert and a fallen statue, this statue with it’s head “visage” half sunken into the sand and half shattered, from the text we are told the statue is meant to draw people’s attention to the kings ‘works’ but not even the statue’s head survived let alone the civilisation that once ruled these lands. The base of the statue had a inscription:

‘My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

This is most ironic as mentioned above but also because it is not the king that would be praised for the statue but the sculptors skill, this is shown by the sculptor being able to show the kings ‘passions’ even when partly destroyed. Nameless the sculptor is praised for his skill that is still valued. 

For Gattaca Vincent Freeman was striving to prove him self as successful but with his success would bring development and improvement for others, showing that his ambition, but he was not driving to reach the top and become the best but to instead just show that he can achieve more then everyone else thinks, this is also what Omen Darkly strives to achieve more then what everyone/parents believe he can achieve, proving himself as capable.

Vincent Freeman has been told all his life that he will not amount to much because his genes aren’t perfect. What is ironic is that when Vincent achieves something greater then they thought he could, it is them telling him he ‘can’t’ that drives him to become successful. What is also interesting is that he wasn’t striving to be the best, even though he achieved something that no had done before, but in the process of getting to that point he showed to people that even if they didn’t think he could be an equal because of ‘something’ it isn’t true, they just have to work a little harder then the person without that challenge. Omen Darkly is also someone that people don’t think will achieve very much, since he is the second born to a family were the first born is meant to protect the world from the queen of the dark lands, so he is not expected to achieve very much or to the level that his brother will achieve, but before he even turns 13 he helps to stop the world from ending

After reading all 4 texts I feel my understanding of ambition has developed because all 4 texts though similar do show the effects of the characters action in the pursuit of their ambitions both good and bad and the irony that occurs to the character and the characters around them.