's conflicts are primarily external. He leaves his family and goes to
England in hopes of convincingto return to Scotland and take back the Scottish throne by force.
Clearly Macduff's conflict is with . Macduff viewsas the enemy who is destroying his country.
He describes the damage Macbeth has done to Scotland:
Each new
morn
New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
Strike heaven on the face . . .
Later, Macduff learns that his wife, children
and servants have all been killed by Macbeth. Again, his conflict is external. Macbeth vows to
fight Macbeth "front to front." Since Macduff has no soliloquies, it is difficult to
determine whether or not he has internal conflicts. However, it might be assumed that he may
have struggled with leaving the family he clearly loves and going to Scotland. In other words,
when he had to choose between his country and his family, he chose his country. When he finds
out that his family is dead, he blames himself:
Sinful Macduff,
They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am.
Not for heir own
demerits but for mine
Fell slaughter on their souls.
Macduff feels responsible for their deaths, and struggles in this scene between his
guilt over leaving them, his extreme grief, and his need to revenge. In fact, his emotions
quite overcome him as he tells Malcolm that before he can act, he must grieve:
I must also feel it as a man.
In this powerful scene, Shakespeare
realistically portrays a strong, good man made weak with grief and despair. But this grief is
soon converted to action as he converts his grief to anger, and the conflict becomes external
once again.
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