Examples Of External Conflict In Macbeth

At the beginning of “Macbeth” we are introduced to two characters Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Both characters have a personality of strong ambition. This later on leads them to make terrible decisions, such as planning to kill king Duncan to gain power. Although both characters were in the plan together, Lady Macbeth leads Macbeth to do her dirty work causing him to come to an external conflict with himself.
Lady Macbeth begins the conflict by telling Macbeth he was a coward for not wanting to kill King Duncan. Lady Macbeth tells Macbeth that if she had agreed to do something she would do it. Macbeth states, “First, as I am his kinsman and his subject, Strong both against the deed; then, as his host, who should against his murderer shut the door, not bear the knife myself.” Showing that he would be ashamed if he were to kill Duncan due to the trust they had with each other. Soon after, Lady Macbeth …show more content…
Out of rage for what he has done Macbeth kills two of the servants and states “I can’t go back. I’m afraid even to think about what I’ve done. I can’t stand to look at it again.” According to Phil Barker, guilt is “ a bothered consequence”, which Macbeth now feels due to killing his king and the two servants.
After Macbeth’s first killings he begins to deal with his guilt a different way then Lady Macbeth does. At first he would just overthink about his crimes so much that he started to hallucinate, “ Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.” Macbeth begins to hallucinate about the dagger because he is paranoid that someone will know what he has done. He knows that he has committed a crime so big that he cannot leave it unfinished. Phil Baker claims “ Guilt is tied to beliefs about what is right or wrong, moral and immoral. When we violate one of these moral guidelines, it causes us to feel guilty over our actions and seek to fix what we have done.” This