According to Sigmund Freud, the id is the part of our mind that houses our instinctual impulses; they can be sexual and/or aggressive. When Macbeth revisits the Weird Sisters, asking for more information about his future, he decides to have Macduff's family murdered since he cannot get to Macduff himself. He says,
From this momentThe very firstlings of my heart shall beThe firstlings of my hand. And even now,To crown my thoughts and acts, be it thought and done:The castle of Macduff I will surprise,Seize upon Fife, give to th' edge o' th' swordHis wife, his babes, and all unfortunate soulsThat trace him in his line. (4.1.166-174)
Macbeth resolves that he will no longer consider, at length, his villainous plans. He says that he will now begin to obey his impulses (the "firstlings of [his] heart"). There is no good reason to kill Macduff's family: it won't win him any friends, help him gain more power, etc. It is an aggressive, totally dishonorable, thing to do, to kill an innocent woman and her children because he hates her husband, their father. He is ruled by the id.
The superego is the part of our mind that serves as our conscience, the part that tries to fulfill, or at least appear to fulfill, society's standards for behavior. We can see Macbeth's superego on display early in the play when he doubts his desire to move forward with the murder of Duncan. Of the king, he says,
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. (1.7.12-16)
Macbeth's conscience begins to overtake his ambition to be king. He knows that Duncan trusts him wholly for several reasons, and it is Macbeth's job, as Duncan's host, to keep the king safe and not threaten his life. Shortly after this speech, Macbeth actually tells Lady Macbeth that he no longer wants to kill the king.
The ego is the part of our mind that mediates between our conscious self, our superego, and our unconscious desires, like those that issue from the id. The ego sort of tries to find a happy medium, so to speak, between what we really want to do and what society would have us do. When Macbeth wants Banquo and Fleance dead, prior to having Macduff's family killed, he knows that he can do nothing to cast suspicion on himself. So, he hires murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance for him. To them, he says,
And though I couldWith barefaced power sweep him from my sightAnd bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,For certain friends that are both his and mine,Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fallWho I myself struck down. And thence it isThat I to your assistance do make love,Masking the business from the common eyeFor sundry weighty reasons. (3.1.134-142)
Here, Macbeth suppresses his id, the desire to kill Banquo and Fleance, because he knows it would be socially unacceptable to appear guilty of their murders. Instead, he hires someone else to do it for him so that his reputation would, in theory, remain unaffected by the murders.
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Please provide quotes from Macbeth that represent id, ego, and superego.
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