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Eric Denby

Professor Hinrichsen

ENGL 290

February 12, 2008

A Freudian Perspective of Lady Macbeth

The year was 1923 and a young Austrian psychiatrist published “The Ego and the

Id,” creating a new theory on the human psyche. Sigmund Freud theorized that a

human’s personality had three distinct components: the id, ego, and super-ego. Ones

impulses, drives, and desires are a part of the id, operating on a pleasure/pain principle

(“Id”). Left unchecked these impulses would attempt to satisfy their urges immediately

with no regard to consequences. On the other hand, the ego is rooted on the “reality”

principle, limiting the id's behaviors and determining what is appropriate based on social

conventions (“Ego”). Three hundred years prior, William Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, a

tragic tale of where ones unchecked and unadulterated desires can lead to. Lady

Macbeth acts as a sophisticated Freudian id to Macbeth’s ego, taking action to reach

her aims, with no understanding of the true ramifications of her immorality.

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Works Cited

“Ego.” Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. Ed. Bonnie Strickland. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale,

2001. 208. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Lansing Community College

Library. 9 February 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com >.

“Id.” Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology. Ed. Bonnie Strickland. 2nd ed. Detroit: Gale,

2001. 323. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Gale. Lansing Community College

Library. 9 February 2008 <http://find.galegroup.com >.

Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Ed. Barbara A. Mowat et al. New York. Washington

Square Press, 1992.