The Unconscious in Shakespeare's Plays by Martin S. Bergmann

Author:Martin S. Bergmann
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Karnac Books Ltd.

The germs of fear that break out in Macbeth on the night of the murder do not develop further in him but in her. It is he who has the hallucination of the dagger before the crime; but it is she who afterwards falls ill of a mental disorder. It is he who after the murder hears the cry in the house: “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep…” and so “Macbeth shall sleep no more”; but we never hear that he slept no more, while the Queen, as we see, rises from her bed and, talking in her sleep, betrays her guilt. It is he who stands helpless with bloody hands, lamenting that “all great Neptune's ocean” will not wash them clean, while she comforts him: “A little water clears us of this deed”; but later it is she who washes her hands for a quarter of an hour and cannot get rid of the bloodstains: “All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand”. Thus what he feared in his pangs of conscience is fulfilled in her; she becomes all remorse and he all defiance. Together they exhaust the possibilities of reaction to the crime, like two disunited parts of a single psychical individuality, and it may be that they are both copied from a single prototype. (Freud, 1916: p. 324)

Freud attributed to Shakespeare the insight that within the couple the partners can exchange identities.

In a magnificent example of the exchange of roles that can take place in a couple, Macbeth fears insomnia and Lady Macbeth develops somnambulism. What is striking is that Shakespeare treats both as purely psychological events based on feelings of guilt. What breaks down in her somnambulism is Lady Macbeth's capacity to keep the murder of King Duncan a secret between herself and her husband. Anyone who watches her desperate efforts to remove the blood spots on her hands can surmise the reason for her agitation.

Just before the murder Macbeth is resolved not to carry it out but is overruled by his wife. There is a long soliloquy of guilt I will quote only in part.

MACBETH: He's here in double trust;

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. Besides, this Duncan

Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been

So clear in his great office, that his virtues

Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against

The deep damnation of his taking-off. (I.vii.12–20)

To kill your guest, who is also a relative, and a king, whose subject you are, and whose character you deeply respect, is indeed an abominable crime, but Shakespeare chose in this play to portray such a murderer, not as a villain but rather as a person with a normal capacity to feel guilt. Macbeth can kill the king because he identified himself with his now masculine wife and her lack of conflict. Shakespeare gave a profound psychological meaning to the term joint murder.

It is a

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