How Is The Shadow Seen In Macbeth

Fear of the unknown is something that plagues most people. The notion that there are matters that exist out of their control and, sometimes, out of their knowledge absolutely terrifies them. In the words of psychologist Carl Jung within the terms of a person’s psyche, the place in the mind and soul that controls thoughts and feelings within the body, this ‘unknown’ is referred to as the shadow. The play Macbeth by William Shakespeare is a good example of the shadow at work within a psyche, specifically in the character of Macbeth himself who struggles constantly with his own ideas and morals which eventually causes him to lose his life.
In Jungian psychology one of Carl Jung’s more ominous concepts is the idea of “the shadow, a non-physical place in the psyche that represents the deepest and most repressed parts of each persons’ own consciousness. Jung, in his words, described it as “that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality…and so comprise the whole historical aspect of the unconscious” (Diamond 96). The shadow is thought to be a part of every human unconsciousness, and in some cases, to be the root of all evil in the …show more content…
Projection can be explained as “perceiving others as having traits that one inaccurately believes oneself not to have” (Baumeister, Dale, & Sommer 1090). It is used a defense mechanism because its sole purpose is to allow one person to project their own bad traits onto another person to avoid confrontation with, or acceptance of, them. Whether or not “a suitable target for projection presents himself or herself” to the person projecting (1092). And when these two ideas come together, the projecting of the shadow can become a dangerous combination, which may explain some of Macbeth’s suffering throughout the