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{"id":18365,"date":"2016-09-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=123"},"modified":"2016-09-16T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-16T00:00:00","slug":"macbeths-three-murders-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/09\/macbeths-three-murders-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Macbeth\u2019s Three Murders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I<\/span>n a contribution to Harold Bloom\u2019s collection of essays on Macbeth<\/a>, Robert Lanier Reid observes that \u201d Interpreters of Macbeth have focused almost exclusively on the first murder, the killing of a king in Acts 1\u20132, as the basis for understanding the play\u2014its social, psychological, and metaphysical meanings. Macbeth\u2019s subsequent two assassinations, of Banquo in act 3, and of Macduff \u2019s wife and children in acts 4\u20135, either are ignored, or are treated simply as efforts to secure the usurped crown, or perhaps as a kind of Freudian \u2018repetition compulsion\u2019 \u2014the blooded man\u2019s first heinous kill engendering serial slayings\u201d (117).<\/span><\/p>\n

That is a mistake, Reid thinks. Instead, we should view the three murders as \u201cequally significant stages of spiritual catastrophe, three distinctive and theatrically potent dimensions of evil as it evolves and festers in the human psyche.\u201d The is a psychological and social progression in the sequence: \u201cMacbeth murders first a politically authoritative parental ruler, then a brotherly friend (his \u2018chiefest friend\u2019 according to Holinshed), and finally a mother and her children\u201d (118). <\/span><\/span>He destroys \u201cthree fundamental human bonds, together comprising (in reverse order) the three basic stages of human maturation.\u201d As a result, \u201cin the course of the three murders Macbeth deconstructs the entire psychological infrastructure of human identity\u201d (118).<\/p>\n

The three murders also provide the skeleton for the structure of the play: \u201cacts 1 and 2 present, in a continuous sequence, the regicide and its immediate consequences; act 3 shows the murder of Banquo and then its impact on Macbeth at the banquet; acts 4 and 5, another continuous cycle of action, presents the slaughter of Macduff\u2019s family, then its social and psychological consequences<\/span>\u201d (118).<\/span><\/p>\n

Reid gives this a distracting Freudian spin: Duncan is superego, Banquo the ego, and Macduff\u2019s family the id. Even without Freud, the points stands.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"