This paper aims at establishing a meaningful relation between Jung’s psychological inquiry into the unconscious and William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Jung defined the common developmental structure of human psyche as the individuation process, which this paper is to analyze through the psychic transitions in Macbeth.
For this end, it can be considered Macbeth as the embodiment of the masculine ego; the place and time of the meeting of the witches as an exact replica of his own inner shadow side; the natural elements such as lighting, thunder, and rains as a reflection of the confusion of the disordered libido. And three witches are the personification of his own personal shadow complexes. Passing through the witches’ heath, Macbeth regresses further into the collective unconsciousness projecting to Inverness castle to reunite with his anima figure Lady Macbeth. Even though the psychic role of an anima in individuation process is a way to lead the masculine consciousness towards individuation, Macbeth’ anima figure fails to perform in that role. She is a projection of Macbeth’s negative and twisted feminine ego dominated by a powerful paternal image to drive him to assassinate the king Duncan.
To assassinate Duncan represents the feminine side’s inner defeat resulting in his failure to individuation because the king is the prototype of the Self, a combination of femininity and masculinity as a symbol of the source and goal of the individuation process. After the murder of Duncan has been committed, Macbeth is to be a son swallowed up by the terrible devouring mother, without being able to establish a psychic equilibrium between the opposing forces of his conscious ego and his anima-dominated unconscious.
Macbeth visits Hecate’s cavern which is a maternal metaphor for a collective unconscious. He confronts apparitions sprang from the boiling cauldron, a fertility symbol. Hecate’s rite is a kind of the ritual of psychic alchemy for Macbeth to regain his lost feminine ego to feel introverted sensation. Since joining in the alchemical ritual performed by mother archetype Hecate, Macbeth is able to realize himself as a “poor player/ That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,” However he is destined to stand somewhat midway between god and man even though he just shares one quality with seeker of self. The process of individuation can be achieved in Macbeth within a context of coming back cosmic order to the state of Scotland with the righteous heir Malcolm be as a king.