According to Freudian gender theory, masculinity is hard to establish and maintain because the male is born from the female body. The male identifies his existence through the mother and looks to her for nourishment and approval. In order to achieve manhood, he must end his dependency on the female and develop his own masculinity by attaining male dominance (Freud). The search for dominance may lead to unhealthy feelings of powerlessness, as is the case in Macbeth. When Freudian psychoanalysis is applied to characters in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, it becomes apparent how Macbeth and Lady Macbeth develop their misguided definitions of masculinity while Macduff is secure in his definition.
At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is highly regarded
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In this stage, the boy wishes to prove his masculinity to the mother figure by usurping his father figure in power which is what Macbeth wishes to do by killing Duncan and claiming the throne. According to Freudian analysis, the fear of overthrowing the father figure combined with the overbearing mother's dominance can make boys feel castration anxiety which is the fear of feeling powerless and insignificant like a woman (Freud). Macbeth develops castration anxiety which causes him to be overly protective of his masculinity. Lady Macbeth takes advantage of her husband’s castration anxiety by emasculating him into doing her bidding. For example, when Macbeth tells her that a real man would not commit murder: “Prithee, peace: I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none,” she responds by questioning his manhood: “What beast was't, then, that made you break this enterprise to me? When you durst do it, then you were a man” (Shakespeare 1.7.46-51). Macbeth agrees to murder Duncan because he wants to defend his manliness; however, in doing so, he is being submissive to his wife which is unmanly. Macbeth is trapped in the boyhood stage of manliness in which he will go to great lengths to achieve approval for his masculinity. This desperate need for