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Abstract
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It was in 1995 that Cathy Caruth a path-breaking figure in trauma studies published her influential book Trauma: Explorations in Memory and depicted trauma in literature. She defined trauma as the belated and oppressing representation of an overwhelming event long after experiencing it. This article will provide a detailed study of Shakespeare’s ambitious hero, Macbeth and his self-traumatization. There are psychological complexes in both Macbeth and his already traumatized wife Lady Macbeth which turned them into bloodthirsty tyrants. Lady Macbeth was not a tyrant by birth, but she reacted only the way her unconscious complexes and unresolved traumas such as childlessness and thirst for power, made her react. The couple was wrecked by false illusions of success and could not enjoy the prospects of a really prosperous life due to their unresolved traumas. The article also provides textual evidence of the symptoms of PTSD, evident both in Macbeth and his wife and shows how these unresolved traumas triggered a self-imposed trauma and how this led them to their final downfall.
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