Macbeth is ideal for psychoanalytic evaluation. It features famously Macbeth who is psychologically tortured with regret before and just after murdering King Duncan. This contrasts with Lady Macbeth, who seems steeled and resolute about murdering King Duncan and seizing his throne.
By the end of the play, Macbeth has turned into a heartless monster who kills the innocent without a thought, whereas Lady Macbeth suffers from guilt and regret that drives her to commit suicide. This invites analysis into the perils of giving in to the urgings of the deep unconscious or as Freud would put it “the eid.”
However, we rarely see the Oedipus complex — one of the cornerstones of the psychoanalytic approach — being applied to the play. After all, neither of Hamlet’s parents are featured in the play. There is no reason to believe that any of his motives are tied to the Oedipal desire to kill his father and possess his mother.
This changes, however, when we take a metaphorical approach and think of Duncan as a father figure and the land as a motif of “the mother.” In this article, we briefly explain what psychoanalytic theory is and apply it to an analysis of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
What is the psychoanalytical theory in literature?
Psychoanalytical theory is a literary approach that is grounded in the work of Sigmund Freud — that suspicious Viennese who saw sex in everything. Nonetheless, in the psychological approach to literature, the focus is on understanding how subconscious desires, fears, and conflicts drive character motives in a story.
To carry out a psychoanalytic review of Macbeth, we need to first get a basic grasp of the tenets of the theory. Central to Freud's psychoanalysis are the concepts of the id, ego, and superego. They make up the psyche of the individual. So, what are they?
The id is the primal, unconscious part of the mind driven by instinctual desires for pleasure and survival. It operates on what Freud refers to as the “pleasure principle” and seeks immediate gratification. For example, a man sees a pretty girl walking through the streets and has the urge to grab and kiss her full on the lips can be described as an urging of the id.
The ego is more grounded in reality. It mediates between the id’s demands and external social norms. It employs what is termed the “reality principle.” It comes up with and navigates practical actions to satisfy the id in ways that are socially acceptable. The superego represents the moral conscience. It embodies societal and family values, and it is often in conflict with the id, creating internal turmoil in characters.
For example, in the case of Macbeth, we can think of the id as the primal desire to murder his king Duncan and seize the throne. In carrying out the act, Macbeth gives in to the urgings of the id. However, his attempt to cover up his crime by putting the blame on his servants — although a vile and evil act — suggests the importance he places in practically covering up his crime so that Scottish society accepts his bid for the Scottish kingship.
The guilt and inner turmoil that Macbeth goes through before and immediately after the murder suggest the extent to which he has violated the principles that his superego stands for. As a loyal general and soldier to King Duncan, resorting to killing him as he slept in the Macbeth household as an honored guest is a violation of all civilized social mores.
The Oedipus complex
Another concept central to psychoanalysis is the Oedipus complex. It also is the wildest. The theory suggests that during childhood, individuals experience subconscious desires for their parent of the opposite sex, which results in a kind of subterranean rivalry with their same-sex parent.
The term is from the Greek myth of Oedipus. Oedipus was the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. A famous prophecy by the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi declared that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. To prevent this, Laius and Jocasta tasked a servant with the task of abandoning their infant son on Mount Cithaeron, binding his feet to ensure he would perish.
However, a shepherd rescues him and brings him to Corinth. There, he is adopted by King Polybus and Queen Merope and raised as a prince. As an adult, Oedipus learns of the prophecy and, believing Polybus and Merope to be his biological parents, flees Corinth to avoid his fate. On his journey, he encounters and kills Laius during a quarrel, unaware of his true identity. Arriving in Thebes, Oedipus solves the Sphinx's riddle, freeing the city from its torment. As a reward, he becomes king and marries Jocasta, his mother.
Years later, Oedipus discovers the truth. This leads to Jocasta taking her own life. Devastated, Oedipus blinds himself and goes into exile, fulfilling the tragic prophecy.
In the case of Macbeth, the story features neither his biological mother nor father. However, the story does contain characters who can stand in as father or mother figures. But hold on. Soon enough, we’ll take a look at how the Oedipus complex applies to Macbeth.
The id, ego, and superego in Macbeth
Macbeth can be described as a play showing the dire consequences of a man giving fully and wholly into the urgings of the superego. The play begins with a fantastic vision of witches discussing how they plan to meet Macbeth. Their conversation ends with the infamous line “Fair is foul, and foul is fair.” This suggests the complete upturning of morality in the play. We can say that it is the theme of the id that drives the actions of Macbeth throughout the play.
MAcbeth’s encounter with the witches can be described as an encounter with his id. The kingship of Scotland is something that Macbeth desires; however, his ego and superego prevent him from expressing such a desire. After all, King Duncan is still alive. What would it look like if Macbeth expressed his desire to be a king?
The id represents our deepest and darkest desires. They are urgings that most people would rather stay hidden and unknown to the rest of the world. You can say that they are ugly and deformed compared to social mores and expectations.
It is rather appropriate that the three witches that express outloud Macbeth’s prophesy of becoming king of Scottland are described as looking so unnatural by Banquo in Act 1, Scene 3:
What are these
So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
That man may question? You seem to understand me,
By each at once her choppy finger laying
Upon her skinny lips: you should be women,
And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
That you are so.
Banquo is not able to tell if he is talking to spirits or “the inhabitants of the earth” or to men or women. So deformed the Three Weird Sisters appear. This is a metaphor for how unnatural the urgings of Macbeth’s id are.
Besides the three witches, another character that represents the id is Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth is relentless in urging Macbeth to go through with the act of murdering Duncan. In fact, she seems positively enthusiastic about it.
In Act 2, Scene 2 Macbeth murders Duncan in his sleep. He has also murdered two servants (or grooms) to make it seem that they were the ones who did it. He is supposed to put the dagger alongside the dead grooms and smear them with the blood of Duncan to make them look guilty. Lady Macbeth urges him to do just that.
However, he has no stomach for it. But not Lady Macbeth:
Infirm of purpose!
Give me the daggers: the sleeping and the dead
Are but as pictures: 'tis the eye of childhood
That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal;
For it must seem their guilt.
Later in the play, Lady Macbeth brushes off the act of murder and their hands that have been bloodied by the deed by saying “A little water clears us of this deed.” Macbeth’s intense feelings of guilt represent his superego. The principles of his superego have been violated. We can go as far as saying that his superego is being killed off in the process.
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The Oedipal complex in Macbeth
How to square off the Oedipal complex in Macbeth? After all, the mother and father of Macbeth do not feature in the play at all. However, we do have father and mother figures in the play. Lady Macbeth acts as a kind of maternal figure to Macbeth, especially when we consider how he chides him for ignoring his conscience and hesitation regarding killing King Duncan.
More important, however, is the idea that King Duncan is a surrogate dad to Hamlet and the throne of Scotland represents the mother that Macbeth desires and wants to own. Putting it that way, I guess it kind of works, although it might come off as a stretch.
Nonetheless, from a metaphorical or symbolist perspective, it makes perfect sense. Macbeth by killing King Duncan fulfills the desire to kill his father and possess his symbolic mother, the throne of Scotland. However, the role of Lady Macbeth as a surrogate mother is far more interesting.
She initiates Macbeth into embracing his id by killing the superego. Macbeth’s intense guilt and shame at murdering his own king shows that he is still a man of honor who suffers from violating that honor. Immediately after killing Duncan, Macbeth exclaims these famous lines after seeing his bloody hands:
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine
Making the green one red.
This is an expression of a tremendous amount of guilt. However, Lady Macbeth does such a thorough job of guiding Macbeth through the process of embracing the urgings of the id that by the end of the play, there are no hints of Macbet’s superego. It is as dead as Duncan.
The superego is responsible for giving meaning and value to life. By following the societal and moral principles the superego presents, one can lead a meaningful life. Macbeth is deprived of this after embracing the dark urgings of his id. In Act 5, Scene 5, after learning that Lady Macbeth is dead, he describes life as “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2024, December 28). Macbeth | A Psychoanalytical Literary Evaluation. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/macbeth-a-psychoanalytical-literary-evaluation |
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