Draft Demo
Internal Conflict is as difficult as external conflict
Internal conflict is just as difficult as external conflict as it is able to lead to external conflict, if given enough time it can change a person to someone completely different making them unrecognizable from their former selves. The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare premieres an accurate interpretation of this statement with how changes happen to the characters due to their actions causing a chain reaction of bad decisions causing their own rise or downfall. There are a lot of factors that cause internal conflict, examples being ambition and manhood or pride that will be discussed. Internal conflict is the end-all and be-all of external conflict with how it is able to change the course of a person’s path in life. This essay’s goal is to explain how internal conflict can lead up to external conflict and cause a chain reaction.
Committing an act that goes against a character or person’s own beliefs causes them to greatly change and think of themselves as somebody else, it gives said character a wave of regret, guilt, and remorse after committing what they believe was an act of great sin. The cause of characters making a hard choice is the character being forced to do said action to gain a higher position. A great example of how internal conflict can affect someone and greatly change them is a scene in Macbeth where Macbeth has to kill King Duncan in order to become king, Lady Macbeth is interested in the idea but Macbeth is unsure about committing the act proved by the quote, ‘He hath honoured me of late, and I have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people, which would be worn now in their newest gloss, not cast aside so soon.’ (Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 7) This highlights Macbeth’s feeling of guilt for just simply thinking of murdering Duncan and that he wouldn’t even be able to think what would happen if he were to kill him, and thanks to this short line of dialogue Shakespeare portrays how hard the decision for killing King Duncan was to Macbeth. It also shows how much Macbeth changes due to this internal conflict later in the story where he started off as a noble and loyal Thane into a scheming, petty, mischievous, and ungracious man who only cares about his pride. With this simple scene, we are able to see how internal conflict can change a person leading to greater conflict, many other characters are shown having significant issues with internal conflict be it in good or bad faith examples being Lady Macbeth who at first was encouraging Macbeth to kill King Duncan but ends up regretting what she has done and commits suicide later on in the story and Macduff who was denying the fact that Macbeth had killed Duncan but later on finds out that it was true and goes on to kill Macbeth at the last act and scene of the story.
Ambition is a word that can motivate someone to a great extent giving the person a feeling of invincibility and a blind sense of pride. These feelings may be a negative or positive effect of ambition as they could make a person who was living in the worst time of their lives rise to the top or give a person an overwhelming feeling of overconfidence that makes them blind to their surroundings causing their downfall. A good example of a character with blind ambition is Lady Macbeth, Lady Macbeth was one of the primary reasons that Macbeth killed King Duncan and Banquo which causes a chain reaction of Malcolm leaving Scotland and Macduff being suspicious of Macbeth. Lady Macbeth’s pride and feeling of invincibility blinded her from the consequences of killing King Duncan but this blind ambition helped her reach a higher status being Queen of Scotland, this is an example of the positives of ambition. Later on in the story, Lady Macbeth is shown having great feelings of guilt after encouraging Macbeth to kill King Duncan, as she suffers from sleepwalking she accidentally reveals this secret to a doctor who was sent to cure her sleepwalking and a gentlewoman. Her great sense of guilt causes her to have a heavy heart and she suffers from it mentally and this is a great example of the negatives of ambition.
Manhood is a common theme in Macbeth, it encourages all the characters in Macbeth to reach a higher position in what they deem is the right way. Manhood is in some ways an extension of ambition as they are always linked with how brave a person is to follow what they believe without stopping for anything. The tragedy of Macbeth shows a toxic form of manhood along with the blind sense of pride that comes with it thanks to its link to ambition, again this causes the rise and downfall of several main characters in Macbeth. There are several examples of manhood in Macbeth some good and some bad, a character with one of the biggest displays of manhood is Lady Macbeth who thanks to several quotes and actions is able to convey to the audience that she holds a significant amount of power over Macbeth, one of these examples is Lady Macbeth revealing her dark intentions and asking to be released of her feelings of guilt and remorse with the quote, ‘Come you spirits that tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here’ (Lady Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5) this quote shows that Lady Macbeth how Lady Macbeth is willing to throw away her own feminine body and feelings so that she is able to become a man who is able to endure heavy emotions and bottle them up, another example of Lady Macbeth’s manhood is shown when she is suffering from sleepwalking where Lady Macbeth says the line, ‘Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and afeard?’, this quote once again shows that even when overcome with feelings of guilt and remorse, even when she feels like she is going insane, Lady Macbeth still holds a sense of power over Macbeth as she is still able to belittle and insult him even when she is in a state of unconsciousness. Once again this shows how prevalent the theme of manhood is in Macbeth with how it encourages characters to feel a blind pride along with feeling near unstoppable.
With the combination of all these factors combined, it can create a chain reaction of emotions and feelings for all the characters in Macbeth that greatly changes them thanks to their choices and beliefs. Internal conflict is in fact just as hard as external conflict with how it is able to create external conflict just by changing the people and characters involved with that external conflict leading up to a climax of clashing beliefs and emotions and forever changing the people involved in said conflict.