This study will examine five different temptations faced by Macbeth in the first act of Shakespeare's play Macbeth. The worst temptation is, of course, murder, but murder would not have even been considered by a man such as Macbeth (who has earlier demonstrated the valor of a good man and leader) without the presence of the other temptations which lead to murder. Those are the temptation of power and honor, the temptation to lie, the temptation of pride (or the temptation to yield up his will to his wife in the name of love), and the temptation of greed.
The temptation of power and honor, or the temptation of ambition, underlie the other temptations. After all, had Macbeth not already been an ambitious man, seeking greater power and honor for himself, he would have responded differently to the witches' proclamation. When they address him as the Thane of Cawdor and then as King, he had the option to respond with joy at the prospect of future gifts from destiny, or with humility at his unreadiness for such power, or with many other honest and human responses. Instead, as Banquo notes, Macbeth "start[s] and seem[s] to fear/ Things that do sound so fair" (Shakespeare, 1989, 15).
Macbeth's immediately frightful response suggests that he was already considering some sort of unnatural act which would speed the process of his rise to the level of kingly power. The proclamation of the witches does not include the means whereby Macbeth will become Thane of Cawdor or King, but only that he will rise to the one position and then the other. Macbeth achieves the rank of Thane of Cawdor legitimately, when the previous Thane proves to be a traitor, so he could have easily concluded that somehow he would become King legitimately as well. However, he barely considers that possibility, and quickly immerses himself in dark consideration of more violent means to kingly power.
With his own ambition to power and honor already at work within, an...