Will Brasil
5/6/12
Shakespeare
Dr. Borlik
Unsex Me! : Penis Envy in the World of Shakespeare
It is no secret that throughout the history of the human race the seats of power have more
often than not been filled by men rather than women. From a primal standpoint this makes
sense, due to the fact that males are naturally bigger, stronger and faster than women; hence why
one will rarely see a species within the animal kingdom dominated by the females. As mankind
has progressed, however, away from caves and into castles the need for such primitive attributes
has diminished. Women, despite being just as intelligent as men, have for the most part been
denied status and power due to pre-conceived notions of weakness or witchcraft. This
obstruction has led to an inherent jealousy of the male sex organs; better known as penis envy.
Penis envy, a concept developed by Sigmund Freud, is loosely defined as not only a
general female envy of the penis, but also the lust for male attributes such as power, position, and
status. Penis envy is said to first rear its head during the phallic stage (three to six years) of life.
It is during this time that a young girl will first realize what a penis is and that she will desire one
for herself. Upon this realization, said young girl will usually begin to develop a sexual
attraction to her father, due to the fact that he has the largest penis in the household. This
subconscious desire is said to drive women towards acquiring a penis of their own. The
acquisition of a man’s penis is not always literal, however, and is usually accomplished through
some sort of taboo act. Incest, for example, between a father and daughter is said to be one way
in which a female can “acquire” a penis. Prior to the 16th century, however, it was believed that
women could acquire a penis in a much more literal (as well as ridiculous) manner. The Malleus
Maleficarum, an essay on the existence, as well as the powers, of witches, depicts a certain
grotesque way in which a witch can steal the male organ: “And what, then, is to be thought of
those witches who in this way sometimes collect male organs in great numbers, as many as
twenty or thirty members together, and put them in a bird’s nest…” (Maleficarum 121).
Certainly outlandish, such notions were conceived in order to explain what at the time could not
be explained. In this case, impotence in a man was seen as unnatural, and must stem from some
sort of root cause. As a result, witches were made to blame for many of the maladies that struck
the human body.
One of the reasons that women were portrayed as witches more often than men is because
of the fact that women were believed to be much more impressionable than men: “The second
reason is, that women are naturally more impressionable, and more ready to receive the influence
of a disembodied spirit” (44). In essence, women were not seen as mentally competent enough
to keep their desires in check. As stated earlier, penis envy refers to the female lust for not only
the male sex organ but the attributes associated with it, such as power. So, due to the fact that
women were believed to be so jealous of the male organ, their wanting of the status and position
of men is what drove them to become witches; for witches had powers that made them just as, if
not more so, powerful than men. The core concept behind penis envy is essentially the hunger
for power; because men were (and in most cases still are) the ones in power, women
subconsciously develop a combination of jealousy and attraction to men who hold status above
them. The late American feminist, Betty Friedan, states that over time the subconscious stress of
penis envy prohibits a women’s superego from forming as completely as a man’s: “But her
inherent deficiency, and the resultant penis envy, is so hard to overcome that the woman’s super-
ego – her conscience, ideals – are never as completely formed as a man’s” (The Feminine
Mystique). Over a long enough period of time, because a woman’s “superego” is not as solidly
founded as a man’s, there is the potential for the subconscious lust and resentment of penis envy
to manifest itself in a destructive manner.
William Shakespeare, being the radical genius that he was, touches upon subjects similar
to that of penis envy, especially in his play Macbeth. One of the play’s main characters, Lady
Macbeth, displays her own version of penis envy as she coerces her husband to assassinate the
king. One of Lady Macbeth’s most recognizable traits is her lust for power and status over
everyone else as queen of Scotland. As someone suffering from penis envy, this makes perfect
sense, as she would in turn have her own metaphorical “penis” if she has the male attributes that
are associated with power. Her craving is so much so that she insults her husband’s manhood
when he questions their motives: “And wakes it now to look so green and pale at what it did so
freely? From this time such I account thy love. Art thou afeard to be the same in thine own act
and valour as thou art in desire?” (Macbeth 2590). Much like the witches described in the
Maleficarum, Lady Macbeth is “stealing” her husband’s penis away from him when she insults
him, due to the fact that he feels unmanly.
Lady Macbeth also shows herself to be similar to witches in other ways; for instance,
when she finds out about the witch’s prophecies concerning her husband becoming the king, she
holds no reservations in telling her husband just how badly she wants to become queen. As
stated earlier, the Maleficarum says that women are more likely than men to become witches
because they are so much more impressionable. As such, Macbeth finds himself hesitating to
kill Duncan, the king, because he knows it is a crime; however Lady Macbeth cares not, and she
wholeheartedly looks forward to the kings death.
Lady Macbeth’s longing for the male organ appears to be at its peak in Act 1 Scene 5 of
the play, when she asks for spirits to denounce her femininity: “Come, you spirits, that tend on
mortal thoughts, unsex me here, and fill me from the crown to the toe top full of direst cruelty.
Make thick my blood, Stop up th’access and passage to remorse” (Macbeth 2587). It is at this
point that the audience is able to bear witness to how much Lady Macbeth despises her own
gender. So much so is Lady Macbeth’s penis envy, that she wants nothing to do with being a
female, going so far as to say she wishes to stop menstruating, which would leave her infertile,
essentially making her a man more so than a woman.
After the assassination of Duncan, Lady Macbeth further meets the stereotypical nature
of women as describe in the Maleficarum, when she continues to become more and more
paranoid as well as feel guiltier about her role in the situation. This could be a play on the fact
that women, who were considered less mentally competent, would not be able to handle the
stress of such a heinous situation. Where Macbeth is able to shrug aside his guilt and move past
it, Lady Macbeth finds herself reminiscing on the subject time and time again. Despite all of the
power and status that she worked so hard to obtain, Lady Macbeth finds that she still lacks the
steely resolve of a man. The reality for Lady Macbeth is that no matter how hard she might try
to “unsex” herself, at her core she is a woman. While her lust for power did indeed grant her the
title of queen of Scotland, that same lust ultimately led to her downfall; mentally, then
physically, as she first realizes the crimes she has committed before dying for them.
It must also be noted that although penis envy is meant strictly for females, one must ask
why Macbeth himself is not guilty of penis envy as well. For example, he too, covets the crown
of Scotland and is indeed jealous of Duncan’s power. Throw in the fact that Lady Macbeth
herself insults Macbeth’s manhood time and again, and it is easy to see why Macbeth might have
been very insecure about his own penis and manhood. His justification for seizing the crown of
Scotland could be that he wanted to show his wife that he was indeed a man, and not some
wimp. In addition to that, Macbeth also finds himself influenced by the words of the witches,
though he is not as easily manipulated as his wife. There still remains the fact that Macbeth too
was as impressionable as a woman because of the fact that he became so enraptured with their
prophecies. A real “man” would have been able to withstand the notion of regicide, as Banquo
does, despite the fact that he at one time housed similar thoughts. When observing the characters
in this manner, one is able to see that perhaps Macbeth and Lady Macbeth should have switched
genders. For much of the play, Lady Macbeth is cold, hard, and ruthless, and while Macbeth
isn’t much better, he does show more compassion than his wife; something that women were
supposed to embrace.
As prominent as penis envy may be in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there also exists the polar
opposite: womb envy. Womb envy is a post-Freudian concept coined by psychiatrist Karen
Horney that states that men envy the loving and nurturing attributes associated with women and
the womb. Macbeth, for the most part, does not show traits characteristic of womb envy, as he is
normally of a very steadfast nature and is extremely cool headed. One could argue, however,
that towards the end of the play when the witches announce that no man of women born could
kill him that he then longs for the fostering nature of the womb. While he doesn’t explicitly say
that he wishes to be nurtured, he does indeed look for men who were born within the safe
confines of the womb. In this way, Macbeth pines for the tender atmosphere of the womb,
because in his case it means that he is safe from harm. Lady Macbeth on the other hand, shows
no signs of womb envy whatsoever. In fact, the only time the audience sees any sort of
compassion from her is when she realizes the evil she has done, and feels badly for her deeds.
Until that point, Lady Macbeth is infatuated with distancing herself as much as possible from the
womb. At one point, she even hints that she might have at one time borne a child, yet her
monstrous language leaves much to be desired: “I have given suck, and know how tender tis to
love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple
from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out” (Macbeth 2590). Obviously enough, Lady
Macbeth cares not for any sort of loving nature, something that someone with womb envy would
hold in high regard.
In conclusion, the Freudian concept of penis envy, or the inherent jealousy and attraction
to the male sex organ, finds its way into one of Shakespeare’s more recognizable plays, Macbeth.
One character in particular, Lady Macbeth, exemplifies what it means to have penis envy, due to
the fact that she has such lust for power, and is willing to do anything to achieve it. In addition
to that, Lady Macbeth finds herself criticizing her husband’s manhood in an attempt to make him
more womanly and her more manly. At her peak, Lady Macbeth even asks the spirits to remove
her sex, and at one point states that she would gladly rip a suckling baby from her breasts and
bash its brains out. Lady Macbeth isn’t the only one, however, that shows signs of penis envy.
Macbeth himself could be considered a woman due to the fact that he is so easily influenced by
the witches and his wife, and because he lets his want for power take over his conscious. Womb
envy, another Freudian concept, can also be applied to Macbeth, as Macbeth finds himself
wishing for the womb and its nurturing confines as it represents safety from danger for himself.
In sum, the two concepts of penis and womb envy are burrowed deep within the core characters
of Macbeth, as they fuel many of their motives and ultimately lead to the actions that take place
within the play.
Works Cited
Friedan, Betty. "The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan (1963)." The Feminine Mystique Betty
Friedan (1963). Web. 06 May 2012.
<http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/us/friedan.htm>.
Kreimer, Heinrich, and Jacob Sprenger. Malleus Maleficarum. Print.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Print.
Shakespeare, William, Stephen Greenblatt, Walter Cohen, Jean E. Howard, Katharine Eisaman
Maus, and Andrew Gurr. The Norton Shakespeare. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.
Print.
"Womb and Vagina Envy." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Dec. 2012. Web. 06 May
2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Womb_and_vagina_envy>.