UNCONSCIOUS WAS DISCOVERED BY SHAKESPEARE EVEN BEFORE SIGMUND FREUD

Abstract

Epilepsy (a neurological disorder marked by sudden recurrent of sensory disturbance, loss of 
consciousness, or convulsions, associated with abnormal electrical activity in the brain), 
psychiatric breakdown, sleep disorders, rage, high ambition, sexual and aggressive desires 
and dysfunctional utopia in the psyche for taking blood from enemies illustrate a surprising 
amount of modern psychological details in Shakespeare‟s renowned characters. Sigmund 
Freud stated in his works on psychoanalysis “The poets and Philosophers before me 
discovered the unconscious‟‟ which the world famous literary critic Harold Bloom of Yale 
University thinks refers to Shakespeare. Indeed, Bloom also contends that what we think of 
as the Freudian map of the mind is in fact Shakespeare‟s and he “invented‟‟ the human. By 
this he means that while all the various character traits that are in Shakespeare existed before, 
few before Shakespeare written down in such details, inspiring generations to be more 
reflective when considering their own behaviours. Whether one agrees with Bloom or not, 
Shakespeare‟s influence on understanding of unconscious of the mind seems undeniable. This 
paper is going to delve into the evil force or unconscious state of mind of the major renowned 
characters of Shakespeare specially Hamlet, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Othello and unpleasant 
and creepy Shylock by applying Freud‟s theory of unconscious who went through 
Shakespeare as a child and was influenced by the psychology of his characters.