The Sacred Victim: Paredros in Shakespeare’s Macbeth
The Sacred Victim: Paredros in Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Summary/Abstract: Shakespeare’s works especially his tragedies can be read as a ritual. The archetypical unconscious overtly present in Shakespearean tragedies offers a rich source of ancient solstice cults and ritual symbols. Shakespeare's emphasis on the contradiction of surrogates, the Great Mother archetype, witches and the Paredros shows that art and ritual forms are combined within the ritual chronotope in Shakespeare’s works. The tragedy of Macbeth constitutes textual evidence in terms of the tragic hero’s quest from a usurper king to a sacred scapegoat. In accordance with the recent studies on psychoanalytical approach to Shakespeare’s characters, Macbeth’s infantilization and his encounter with his anima will guide us to understand the femininity principle in the play as the return of the suppressed Terrible Mother. In this paper, Macbeth’s transfiguration from a tragic hero to an oedipal Paredros will be examined in detail with the ancient origins of the terms.

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