Missing Lady Macbeth’s Sickness unto Death
Kierkegaard’s Allusions to Macbeth for Concepts of Sin, Gender, and Despair
Wendy M. Bustamante
Missing Lady Macbeth’s Sickness unto Death
Kierkegaard’s Allusions to Macbeth for Concepts of Sin, Gender, and Despair
My argument is for what can be gathered from the lack of attention paid to Lady Macbeth
in Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death. Twice in Kierkegaard’s The Sickness unto Death,
lines delivered by Macbeth are described by Anti-Climacus as “psychologically masterful,”
inasmuch as they convey what Anti-Climacus identifies as a distinctly masculine expression (or
mode) of despair, as opposed to the feminine mode of despair. Since Macbeth is meaningfully
discussed as a “psychologically masterful” depiction of despair, it seems Lady Macbeth ought to
be considered a meaningful illustration of feminine despair, but she is not explicitly discussed. I
suspect Anti-Climacus neglects Lady Macbeth because of his own feminine despair in weakness,
and therefore lack of reflection and despair over the earthly. My goal, then, is twofold. I wish to
first, illuminate the striking neglect of Lady Macbeth in the work and second, discuss the
symptomatic resonances of despair involved in such a surprising and suspicious neglect for the
feminine.
In addition to explicit references to lines from Macbeth, I suggest a general and ongoing
allusion to the tragedy with regard to sin and despair. According to Anti-Climacus, “Despair is
the Sickness unto Death.”1 It is related to the eternal and absolutely attached to the God-relation
in a Christian. Reference to God-relations are intermittently scattered throughout the tragedy of
Macbeth. The ideal king in the tragedy of Macbeth is not Macbeth, but rather, the king who is
referenced amidst a political conversation between Macduff and Malcolm as the good King
whose stamp could miraculously cure a disease called “The Evil.”2 What was so remarkable
1
2
Kierkegaard, Sören. The Sickness Unto Death. Princeton University Press. NJ: 1983., 13.
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Wordsworth Editions. London: 2005. IV.3. [140-160].
Bustamante 1
about this King was his relation to the divine. He could call upon the heavens to cure poor, sick
souls. Macbeth is not that kind of King, and in fact, he calls upon witches to aid him with their
prophecy. It is during this conversation between Macduff and Malcolm that the first doctor
enters the performance. This doctor presents himself rather spontaneously to inform Malcolm of
the great healing being performed by the King’s touch because, “sanctity hath Heaven given his
hand.”3 In response to Macduff’s inquiry about the disease, Malcolm informs him that the
disease is called “The Evil”4 and that the King solicits Heaven in some inscrutable way. This is
a stark contrast to Macbeth, whom Malcolm and Macduff are plotting to kill during the
conversation. The King is said to have the “heavenly gift of prophecy”5 whereas Macbeth seeks
prophecy from beings more closely aligned with Hell. The next time a doctor enters the
performance, the doctor is diagnosing Lady Macbeth with a spiritual illness which leads to her
self-inflicted death.
Having observed an episode of Lady Macbeth’s sleepwalking and tormented shouts about
the murkiness of hell and her inexpiable guilt as she attempts to wash an imagined spot from her
hands, the doctor concludes,
Foul whisp’rings are abroad: unnatural deeds
Do breed unnatural troubles: infected minds
To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
More needs she the divine than the physician.
-God, God forgive us all! – Look after her,
Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
And still keep eyes upon her. So, good night.
My mind she has mated, and amazed my sight.
I think, but dare not speak.6
3
Ibid.
Most likely a reference to King Edward the Confessor and “The King’s Evil” or “Scrofula” which is referred to
today as a form of tuberculosis. The cure for the “The King’s Evil” was said to be “The Royal Touch.”
5
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Wordsworth Editions. London: 2005. IV,3. [155].
6
Ibid., V, I. [61-70].
4
Bustamante 2
The doctor is describing something very similar to the kind of psychological sickness AntiClimacus describes in his analysis of despair. Lady Macbeth is in despair of the forgiveness of
her sins, the cleansing aspect. Her unnatural troubles, such as her sleepwalking, is a sign of her
infected mind and the cause of the infection was, for her, sins, or unnatural deeds. She was
complicit in the murder of the King before her husband. She had told her husband while awake,
“what’s done, is done”7 and while asleep she continues the conversation by saying to her
imagined husband, “What’s done, cannot be undone.”8 Her husband is in despair over what has
been done. She assures him that this is worthless because it cannot be undone. She, on the other
hand, sees that the blood from what has been done remains, and despairs because it will not wash
away, cleansed by the purity of forgiveness. From the doctor she is prescribed, as are we all,
forgiveness from God.
Anti-Climacus explicitly references Macbeth twice within his discussion of sin. The first
mentioning is to illustrate that the state of sin is far worse than particular sin9 and, in fact, the
sin—the continuance of sin—is the state of sin. This is where Shakespeare’s lines are deemed
psychologically masterful and Anti-Climacus quotes, “Works arising in sin gain strength and
power through sin.”10 This is Anti-Climacus’ translation from the German in Schlegel’s
Shakespeare’s Werke. The original line in English is, “Things bad begun make strong themselves
by ill.”11 This line occurs in a discussion between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth
tells her husband not to be in such despair over a deed that has no remedy and Macbeth tells her,
“We have scorched the snake, not killed it,”12 and goes on to discuss the ways in which the
7
Ibid., III, 2. [14].
Ibid., V, 1. [57-58].
9
Kierkegaard, Sören. The Sickness Unto Death. Princeton University Press. NJ: 1983., 106.
10
Ibid.
11
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Wordsworth Editions. London: 2005. IV, 3. [60].
12
Ibid., III, 2. [15].
8
Bustamante 3
suffering from their deed is a fate worse than the king they killed.13 This is strongly reminiscent
of the introduction to The Sickness unto Death, wherein the sickness unto death is described as
undoubtedly worse than death.
Anti-Climacus suggests that the intensity of despair is transparent to consciousness of
itself, “The ever increasing intensity of despair depends upon the degree of consciousness or is
proportionate to its increase: the greater the degree of consciousness, the more intensive the
despair.”14 Despair in its lowest degree of consciousness is either ignorant of being despair or
ignorant of being a self and an eternal self.15 An individual that is ignorant of being in despair
does not experience despair in as much intensity as an individual who is conscious about being in
despair. Similarly, an individual that believes in spiritlessness (remains ignorant about the
capacity for all human beings to become the eternal spiritual synthesis of mind and body) does
not experience despair with as much awareness or intensity.16 Deliverance from despair remains
as available to the ignorant as to the conscious, but the ignorant will have to become conscious in
order to get closer to deliverance, and will then experience increased intensity.17 Two kinds of
despair are exhibited by individuals who are conscious of despair and the eternal aspect of their
selves and, “The one form is, so to speak, feminine despair, the other, masculine despair.”18 The
feminine form of despair is, “in despair not to will to be oneself: despair in weakness.”19 The
masculine despair is, “in despair to will to be oneself: defiance.”20
13
Ibid., [20-30].
Kierkegaard, Sören. The Sickness Unto Death. Princeton University Press. NJ: 1983., 43.
15
Ibid., 44.
16
Ibid., 43-4.
17
Ibid., 44.
18
Ibid., 49.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid., 67.
14
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It seems important that though Anti-Climacus poses the two as opposites, he stresses that,
“the opposites are only relative”21 because no despair is entirely free of either defiance or
weakness. There will be weakness found in despair in defiance and defiance found in despair in
weakness.22 The clarification about these relative opposites comes immediately before the
specification that one form is feminine and the other is masculine. The specification is also
accompanied by a similar clarification about women and men with regard to these two forms of
despair. This specification takes place in a footnote where Anti-Climacus stresses that he is, “far
from denying that women may have forms of masculine despair and, conversely, that men may
have forms of feminine despair, but these are exceptions.”23 The subtle ambiguity of the
relatively opposite forms of despair is acknowledged, but their distinction remains for the
purpose of exploration into the nature of despair. The two forms represent ideals, “And of
course the ideal is also a rarity, and only ideally is this distinction between masculine and
feminine despair altogether true.”24 Only rarely would despair take the sole form of masculine or
feminine. This simply reinforces the clarification that despair is never without weakness or
defiance, but the form of despair in defiance is structured mainly through its defiance and the
form of despair in weakness is carved out by its weakness.
Despair in weakness is despair “in despair not to will to be oneself”25 and comes in
multiple forms. The first of these forms is, “despair over the earthly or over something
earthly.”26 This kind of despair comes from without, rather than within. It is despair guided by
external factors and not from self-reflection. It is other-regarding despair felt by a passive self.
21
Ibid., 49.
It is tempting to go so far as to suggest that Anti-Climacus provides the notion of the two relatively opposite forms
as mirroring each other because of his use of the word “reflection” when he explains, “To call this form despair in
weakness already casts a reflection on the second form,” Ibid.
23
Ibid, 49.
24
Ibid.
25
Ibid.
26
Ibid., 50.
22
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Anti-Climacus calls this “pure immediacy or immediacy containing a quantitative reflection.”27
The lack of mediation is the lack of qualitative reflection or lack of reflection at all. The lack of
reflection keeps the person in this form of despair from being conscious of what despair really is.
Rather, a person in this kind of despair ascribes despair to the external rather than the eternal. It
is a step further than unconscious despair because the despair is acknowledged, but this does not
mean the despair is correctly understood, “So he28 despairs—that is, in a strange reversal and in
complete mystification about himself, he calls it despairing.”29 He is not entirely ignorant of the
eternal, but he fails to recognize that “to despair is to lose the eternal”30 and instead believes
despair results from external loss. He speaks of these external losses in the language of luck and
fate. He despairs from what appears to him to be bad luck or an unfortunate fate. He despairs
immediately in his connection with the outside world, with others and with things, but does not
relate to his despair from within. Lady Macbeth seems worth looking at in this kind of feminine
despair. Only sub-consciously does Lady Macbeth exhibit internal strife. Consciously, she is
constantly concerned about nothing more than externalities. Everything she does seems to be
done as if she’s playing a game with the people and pieces in front of her. When Macbeth is
killing Duncan, she isn’t reflecting upon her decision; she’s narrating what she believes is
happening based on the brewing of the storm and the screeching of the owl.31
Depending on the extent to which reflection is missing and the closeness to pure
immediacy, this form of despair can be at best despair not to will to be oneself. It can be even
lower than that if one is actually in despair to be a self and even lower still if one wishes to
27
Ibid.
The “he” referred to here is “The man of immediacy.” Though Anti-Climacus formerly mentioned in a footnote
that men rarely exhibit the feminine form of despair, he calls someone suffering from despair over the earthly the
man of immediacy. Ibid., 51.
29
Ibid.
30
Ibid.
31
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Wordsworth Editions. London: 2005. II, 1. [1-8].
28
Bustamante 6
become someone else.32 Within this form of despair, there can be more or less selfconsciousness as a result of more or less reflection. Despair not to will to be oneself is
immediacy with some reflection, but the lower forms exhibit little to no reflection at all. The
man or woman in despair not to will to be oneself understands, from this slightly greater capacity
for reflection, that he or she can lose external things without losing the self.33 They would get
close to understanding despair, but fail to move away from externalities. They might recognize
that the self is separate from the external world, giving them a minor awareness of the self as
something eternal, but fail to recognize that despair is separate from the external world and
therefore continues to understand it as bound up with external losses. This form of despair fails
to turn inward with regard to despair. It is conscious despair, but the person in this form of
despair turns outward to try to understand it. It’s more difficult to position Lady Macbeth in
terms of degree of consciousness and reflection, but she seems to be pretty low on the spectrum
since she only exhibits her despair subconsciously. It isn’t even clear if she kills herself
consciously or subconsciously. She does, however, seem to fit well with the description of that
type of feminine despair which is over the earthly.
Those in despair over the earthly harbor an ill regard toward turning inward. They think
that, “to be concerned about one’s soul and to will to be spirit seems to be a waste of time in the
world, indeed, an indefensible waste of time that ought to be punished by civil law if possible.”34
Since despair is, in this case, associated with concerns over the earthly, concerns about unearthly
matters like soul and spirit seem unimportant. Someone with this kind of regard for the soul and
spirit are likely to turn away if ever they begin to turn inward since they prize the earthly and do
not find such things looking inward. Lady Macbeth’s famous lines, “what’s done, is done”
32
Kierkegaard, Sören. The Sickness Unto Death. Princeton University Press. NJ: 1983., 52-3.
Ibid., 55.
34
Ibid., 57.
33
Bustamante 7
follow from the lines, “How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone,/ Of sorriest fancies your
companions making,/ Using those thoughts which should indeed have died/ With them they think
on? Things without all remedy/ Should be without regard.”35 Because what has been done
externally has already been done, and the existence of the person it has been done to has been
eliminated, for example, thoughts about those external actions which cannot be remedied and
non-existent individuals are not worth thinking about anymore. Thinking about an individual
that no longer exists is thinking along the lines of the eternal. She rebukes Macbeth’s reflections
and rebukes him for reflecting.
A further distinction is made between despair over the earthly and despair over
something earthly. The self in despair over the earthly in totality is the result of despair over
something particular in the world so passionately that the particular thing becomes the totality of
the temporal earthly world. Infinite passion over a particular externality becomes despair over
the earthly. A passion this strong and total prevents a successful inward turn, and instead can
only move through to the next step forward, despair of the eternal or over oneself.36 Lady
Macbeth is certainly passionate about the earthly. She is passionate about her husband and his
power over the earthly. It becomes difficult to see what she is particularly passionate about, but
she is moved by the stirrings of nature, the events of her castle, and ambition of and for her
husband. Her fluidity of passion from a particular, like her husband, to the totality of power
seems illustrative of the fluid movement Anti-Climacus is describing with regard to despair over
35
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Wordsworth Editions. London: 2005. III, 2. [10-14].
Anti-Climacus remarks in a footnote that the linguistic distinction between of and over is important. He denotes
that over is to be used for despair regarding the earthly and of is to be used for despair regarding the eternal. That
which is described with the term over is despair over that which does not release one from despair. For this reason,
despair of the eternal is a distinct step forward from despair over the earthly. Despair regarding the self, on the other
hand, calls for both terms since “the self is doubly dialectical.” Kierkegaard, Sören. The Sickness Unto Death.
Princeton University Press. NJ: 1983., 60-61.
36
Bustamante 8
the earthly and over something earthly. Despair over something earthly expands outward, rather
than inward.
If, however, a movement forward is made, it is a movement of consciousness about what
the despair concerns. Anti-Climacus assures us that all despair is ultimately regarding the eternal
self, “Despair over the earthly or over something earthly is in reality also despair of the eternal
and over oneself, insofar as it is despair, for this is indeed the formula for all despair.”37 All
despair is actually over oneself and of the eternal, but the person in despair over the earthly is not
conscious that they are in despair as such. They believe their despair is externally driven and are
bound to external gains and losses. The step forward toward despair of the eternal or over
oneself marks the consciousness that earthly ties are weak ties and that when too much
importance is given to the earthly, the self can be lost. Despair of the eternal and over oneself
requires more self consciousness than despair over the earthly since such despair would be
impossible without a consciousness of a self to be despaired over and its having had or having
something eternal about it.38 It is a conscious step forward, but someone in despair of the eternal
and over oneself continues to be in despair not to will to be oneself despite having a much
qualitatively fuller self-consciousness than the lower forms. The linguistic distinction AntiClimacus offers us is that the despair over the earthly was despair in weakness, whereas despair
of the eternal or over oneself is despair over weakness.39
The problem with this form of despair is that it is inclosed. Because he knows of his
weakness and despairs over it, he hides it from the external world he values so much. The man
in this kind of despair suffers from inclosing reserve. Inclosing reserve is the opposite of
37
Kierkegaard, Sören. The Sickness Unto Death. Princeton University Press. NJ: 1983., 60.
Ibid., 62.
39
Ibid., 61.
38
Bustamante 9
immediacy;40 it is not a lack of reflection, but rather, a drowning in passionate reflection.
Inclosing reserve cannot usually be detected from without. The man suffering from inclosing
reserve looks outwardly normal, and perhaps even upstanding.41 The greatest danger he faces is
suicide if he remains in complete solitude about his despair over his weakness and continues and
continues to spiral with passionate protection over his weakness. On the other hand, if he can
find himself one confidant to share with, he will likely avoid suicide, unless he is thrown into
inclosing reserve by a confidant. 42 It is worthwhile to think again of Lady Macbeth here. She
manifests deep despair in her sleep and commits suicide, having never consciously confided in
Macbeth or the audience that she was in any kind of despair. It seems as though Lady Macbeth
depicts exactly what the danger is for the inclosed individual in despair not to will to be oneself.
There is, of course, a way in which this form of despair transitions dialectically into the
masculine form of despair, despair to will to be oneself: defiance.
If this form of despair is not directed toward faith, it could possibly become “intensified
into a higher form of despair and continue to be inclosing reserve.”43 If it is intensified, it is
intensified into defiance and in fact, “the first expression for defiance is this very despair over his
weakness.”44 Intensification serves as a kind of strengthening device, yielding despair over
weakness into defying weakness. Despair in defiance, the masculine form, “essentially belongs
within the qualification of spirit, while femininity is a lower synthesis.” Intensification of
despair always correlates with consciousness. Intensification of despair in the case of despair
over weakness means one has become conscious of not willing to be oneself. In addition to
heightened intensity, rising consciousness of the self means higher consciousness of “what
40
Ibid.
Ibid., 63-4.
42
Ibid., 66.
43
Ibid., 65.
44
Ibid., 66.
41
Bustamante 10
despair is and that one’s state is despair.”45 A person in this kind of despair no longer identifies
their despair with externalities, but rather from the internal pressures from the infinite self. This
kind of despair is conscious of the eternality of the self and therefore appreciates itself only in
the most abstract form, a self with no relation to its creator. Defiance means that the self
defiantly sees itself as its own master. This does not involve suffering from the weakness of not
willing to be oneself, but rather from striving to will to be oneself to no avail, “The self is so far
from successfully becoming more and more itself that the fact merely becomes increasingly
obvious that it is a hypothetical self.”46 The idea being expressed here is that the self falsely
posits itself as a master, but it is like a king without a country. Or, perhaps, like King Macbeth
whose reign is tragic and short-lived. Recall again that the good King in Macbeth has an obvious
relation to God and Macbeth defies God by turning to the prophecy of witches.
Though the self might be imagining itself to be what it is not, if it acts upon itself in
despair, it is despair to will to be oneself, rather than not to will be oneself.47 But through all its
acting, it defiantly denies hope and help from the eternal. Not only does he not accept it, “He is
offended by it, or, more correctly, he takes it as an occasion to be offended at all existence; he
defiantly wills to be himself, to be himself not in spite of it or without it…no, in spite of or in
defiance of all existence, he wills to be himself with it, takes it along, almost flouting his
agony.”48 He remains stubbornly in a life of despair because he prefers it to the help of others.
He suffers and does not want to be helped, at least not by way of the eternal. Further
intensification of this sort of despair in defiance is in danger of becoming demonic.
45
Ibid., 67.
Ibid., 69.
47
Ibid., 70.
48
Ibid., 71.
46
Bustamante 11
The demonic suffers so stubbornly that the offer of help appears to be the most dreadful
threat of harm. The demonic is deeply offended by that which could alleviate his suffering. In a
demonic despair that despairs to will to be oneself, defiance turns into a blatant hatred of
existence. It is no longer simply the defiance of willing to be oneself, but rather a malicious
rebellion against the whole of existence. His torment becomes his evidence that existence is
torment and he refuses to let it go. Both the person suffering from the feminine form of despair
and the masculine is offended by the eternal, but it is important to note the difference. In despair
in weakness, the person is “offended and does not dare to believe”49 and in despair in defiance,
the person is “offended and will not believe.”50 This distinction is affirmed in Anti-Climacus’
discussion of despair with regard to sin.51
The point of consciousness where sins of despair enter the conversation is at the “point
the intensification of the consciousness of the self is the knowledge of Christ, a self directly
before Christ.”52 The self knows to be a self in relation to Christ and therefore is no longer
ignorant with regard to the eternal as seen in earlier forms of despair with lesser consciousness,
but the self before Christ still comes before Christ either in despair not to will to be oneself or in
despair to will to be oneself. The distinction between the two is carved out by the one being
49
Ibid., 113.
Ibid.
51
Before moving onto the discussion of sin, I want to return to a footnote by Anti-Climacus that was mentioned
earlier. In the same footnote where Anti-Climacus denies trying to say anything against the possibility of men
suffering from feminine despair and women suffering from masculine despair, he expresses a difference between the
separation of the feminine and masculine in his part one of the book and his part two. Having written an extensive
discussion of female devotion versus male devotion, Anti-Climacus explains, “The above pertains to the relation
between masculine and feminine despair. But it is to be borne in mind that this does not refer to devotion to God or
to the God-relationship, which will be considered in Part Two.”51 The reference above is a reference to the
discussion of how general distinctions between male and female devotion relate to their respective masculine and
feminine forms of despair. Anti-Climacus claims that the distinct types of devotion do not correlate in relation to
god in the same sense that they correlate with a relation to the self in despair. “In the relationship to God, where the
distinction of man-woman vanishes, it holds for men as well as for women that that devotion is the self and that in
giving of oneself the self is gained. This holds equally for man and woman, although it is probably true that in most
cases the woman actually relates to God only through the man.” It seems worthwhile to make a note of this
vanishing distinction, since my intention is to work with the reference to Macbeth, which occurs in Part Two.
50
52
Ibid., 113.
Bustamante 12
referred to as despair of the forgiveness of sins and the other as despair over one’s sins. The
linguistic divide between of and over seems to parallel the distinction clarified in Part One of The
Sickness unto Death. Anti-Climacus tells us that the correct use of over is in reference to
external things or to the self, whereas the of is always used when referencing the eternal. Since
forgiveness is in the realm of the eternal and sins refer to the self or the external, this distinction
appears to parallel the earlier note on the matter.
Anti-Climacus quotes Macbeth when discussing despair over one’s sins, “Despair over
sin is an effort to survive by sinking even deeper.”53 This description resonates with the first
Macbeth quote Anti-Climacus brings into the discussion of sin, “Works arising in sin gain
strength and power through sin.”54 This line is psychologically masterful for the discussion
because Macbeth is a paradigm for despair over one’s sins. Macbeth relieves himself of his
despair by immersing himself further into it. His enemies become anyone who could take the
crown that his sin was meant to obtain. His crown is his sin and he is offended by anyone who
could possibly rid him of it. Banquo becomes his enemy because his kin might possibly be,
according to the prophecy of the witches, a king. The mere possibility that this prophecy could
mean that Banquo’s son Fleance might take Macbeth’s crown is threatening enough for Macbeth
to have both Banquo and Fleance murdered.55 In despair over his sin, Macbeth is carried away
with sin.
Anti-Climacus quotes Macbeth’s lines (from after murdering King Duncan), “For, from
this instant, there’s nothing serious in mortality; All is but toys, renown and grace is dead.” This
is another point at which Macbeth wishes for death as opposed to his spiritual suffering from his
deed. The line that precedes the lines quoted is, “Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had
53
Ibid., 110.
Ibid., 106.
55
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Wordsworth Editions. London: 2005. III, 1. [50-75]
54
Bustamante 13
lived a blessed time.”56 Macbeth knows his despair to be worse than death and he attributes it
directly to his sin. Had he died before the sin, he would have been better off than living through
it, but since he continues to live, he lives with it and chooses to embrace the continuation of it.
Anti-Climacus suggests that this kind of consciousness is evident in the use of the words renown
and grace, “The masterful stroke is the double turn in the last words (renown and grace [Ruhm
and Gnade]). By sin, that is, by despairing over his sin, he has lost all relation to grace—and also
to himself.”57 Macbeth breaks with two things by despairing over his sin—the good and
repentance.58 He breaks from the good when he loses his relation to himself and from
repentance when he loses his relation to grace. The self he maintains, is lost in despair because,
“His selfish self culminates in ambition. He has now in fact become the king, and yet, in
despairing over his sin and of the reality of repentance, of grace, he has also lost himself; he
cannot even keep on going by himself, and he is no closer to enjoying his self at the height of his
ambition than he is to grasping grace.”59 Macbeth did not enjoy the means by which he achieved
the end of his ambition, nor did he enjoy obtaining his end. All of his ambition was shrouded in
despair over his sins.
The more complicated matter with regard to sin and despair (especially in terms of the
gender distinction) is the distinction between the sin of despairing in weakness and the sin of
despairing in defiance. Despair of the forgiveness of sins is “traceable to the one or to the other
formula for despair, despair in weakness or the despair in defiance…But here weakness and
defiance are the opposite of what they usually are (since here the point is not just about being a
56
Shakespeare, William. Macbeth. Wordsworth Editions. London: 2005. II, 3. [88].
Kierkegaard, Sören. The Sickness Unto Death. Princeton University Press. NJ: 1983., 110.
58
Ibid.
59
Ibid.
57
Bustamante 14
sinner, thus in the category of one’s imperfection.”60 Since despair of the forgiveness of sins is
traceable either to weakness or defiance, it is traceable to either feminine or masculine forms of
despair. Yet, Anti-Climacus tells us that weakness and defiance do not look the same with
regard to the category of sin. Defiance looks different in this new category because “here it is
indeed the defiance of not willing to be oneself, what one is—a sinner—and for that reason
wanting to dispense with the forgiveness of sins.”61 Defiance falls under what was earlier
established as the feminine form of despair—not to will to be oneself. Lady Macbeth, whom
I’ve argued ought to be considered as the paradigm of inclosed feminine despair not to will to be
oneself, becomes then, the figure of defiance. Defiantly, she does not will to be a sinner—at
least not consciously.
If Macbeth’s despair over his sins could move into either the despair in defiance or the
despair in weakness, it seems it would have to be despair in weakness. Just as defiance took a
turn in the opposite direction from the masculine to the feminine, “Weakness takes the same
opposite turn, for it is in this case “to despair to will to be oneself—a sinner—in such a way that
there is no forgiveness.”62 Macbeth’s despair over his sin results in the kind of sinner who cuts
himself off from grace. Having cut himself of from grace, he has cut himself off from
forgiveness. The despair of the forgiveness of sins that is traceable to weakness means both to
despair to will to be oneself and to be offended and not to dare to believe.63 Macbeth is offended
by anyone who would remove the mark of his sin or relieve him of his suffering by taking his
crown and forcing him to atone. Macbeth can neither do as his wife does and deny his sin and
his self, nor will he welcome grace and forgiveness into his midst.
60
Ibid., 113.
Ibid.
62
Ibid.
63
Ibid.
61
Bustamante 15
I hope that my argument up to this point has been compelling in the way of illuminating
Lady Macbeth as an essential counterpart and perfect point of discussion for the ideals of
masculine and feminine forms of despair in The Sickness unto Death. The next task at hand is
diagnosing Anti-Climacus. If Lady Macbeth is the perfect counter-ideal in discussions of despair
in weakness and despair in anxiety, why does Anti-Climacus neglect her? I suggest it is because
he has so much in common with her in terms of despair. He does not reference her because he
relates to her too closely. Explicitly reflecting upon her despair might draw too near to reflecting
upon himself. Lady Macbeth, as I have inserted her into the conversation of despair, suffers
from despair in weakness not to will to be herself. She is in despair over the earthly, the external
rather than the eternal. Anti-Climacus presents a similar disposition. He is boastful and
belittling like Lady Macbeth. He hardly turns inward. He is always other-regarding and
diagnosing. If he were willing to turn inward, he would not neglect Lady Macbeth. If he related
more closely to Macbeth, he would have done nothing but self-reflected. Macbeth was perfectly
accessible to him because Macbeth is a complete externality, one Anti-Climacus might feel as
passionately about as Lady Macbeth.
If Lady Macbeth and Anti-Climacus both suffer from inclosing reserve and Lady
Macbeth kills herself, not having found a confidant, I’d like to think that perhaps Anti-Climacus
is just self-reflective enough to have found himself a confidant in his readers. If he had not
neglected Lady Macbeth, I might have thought so. He did neglect her, though. In doing so, he
neglected the obvious counter-figure for the feminine. This might mean he did not really trust
the reader as his confidant. He was unwilling to reflect upon a figure that would bring him so
close to reflecting upon himself. Or, perhaps, he neglected her intentionally, so the reader would
detect the missing counter-figure and discover that the figure of the feminine is Anti-Climacus.
Bustamante 16
Bibliography
Kierkegaard, Søren, Howard V. Hong, and Edna H. Hong. The Sickness unto Death: A Christian
Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening. by Søren Kierkegaard; Edited
and Translated with Introduction and Notes by Howard V. Hong and Edna H. Hong.
Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980, http://libezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=c
at03318a&AN=tamug.26264&site=eds-live.
Shakespeare, William and Cedric Watts. Macbeth. William Shakespeare; Edited by Cedric Watts
Ware, Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, 2005, http://libezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=c
at03318a&AN=tamug.2988743&site=eds-live.
Bustamante 17