Macbeth: a Freudian perspectiveMacbeth and Lady Macbeth We can take the figure of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth as an example of a person who collapses when he achieves success, after having fought to obtain it with resolute energy. . First there is no hesitation, no sign of internal conflict in her, no effort other than to overcome the scruples of her ambitious yet tender husband. She is willing to sacrifice even her femininity to his murderous intent, without reflecting on the decisive role that this femininity will have to play when the question of preserving the purpose of her ambition, achieved with a crime, arises. Analytical work encounters no difficulty in showing us that it is the forces of consciousness that prevent the subject from taking the long-hoped-for advantage from the fortunate change in reality. It is a difficult task, however, to discover the essence and origin of these judging and punitive tendencies, which so often surprise us by their existence where we do not expect to find them. For the usual reasons I will not discuss what we know or conjecture on the point in relation to cases of clinical observation, but in relation to figures that great writers have created starting from the wealth of their knowledge of the mind. We can take the figure of Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth as an example of a person who collapses when he achieves success, after having fought for it with resolute energy. First there is no hesitation, no sign of internal conflict in her, no effort other than to overcome the scruples of her ambitious yet tender husband. She is ready to sacrifice even her femininity to his murderous intent, without reflecting on the decisive part that this woman...... middle of paper...... Die Braut von Messina, III v. Strachey and Tyson (eds.).Note 2See. Macbeth, act III, sc. I: Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, and placed in my hand a barren scepter, from which it was torn with a non-linear hand, no son of mine could succeed him...Note 3How is the courtship of Anne by Richard III next to the coffin of the King he murdered. Note 4Freud had already suggested this in the first edition of The Interpretation of Dreams (1900), Standard Edition, IV 266. Strachey and Tyson (eds.). Note 5Does not appear to have been published. In a subsequent article on Macbeth Jekels (1917) barely refers to this theory, except to cite the present paragraph. In a still later article, in The Psychology of Comedy, Jekels (1926) returns to the topic, but again very briefly. Strachey and Tyson (eds.).