One of the aspects of psychoanalytic theory is the role of the unconscious and the conscious. In the text, Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice, Charles Bressler states that Freud's contemporaries viewed the conscious only as an observer and recorder of external reality and stated that the conscious represented the basis of reason and analytical thinking while the unconscious simply accumulates and retains. our memories (121). Therefore, many psychoanalytic theorists believed that consciousness was solely responsible for our daily behavior and actions (Bressler 121). However, Freud challenged this widely accepted notion by arguing that the unconscious not only stores our memories but also includes our repressed and unresolved conflicts (Bressler 121). Freud also argued that the unconscious also collects and accumulates our hidden desires, ambitions, fears, and passions (Bressler 121). As a result, Freud stated that the unconscious drives a significant part of our actions and behaviors by accumulating disguised truths and hidden desires that want to be exposed through the conscious (Bressler 121). In Jacques Lacan's essay “The Action of the Letter in the Unconscious or Reason after Freud,” he agrees with Freud's claims that the unconscious influences our behavior and actions. Accordingly, Lacan created three different categories to explain the transformation from childhood to adulthood, namely need, demand and desire, and labeled these three psychoanalytic orders as the Imaginary, Symbolic and Real stage. Lacan states that during the Symbolic stage the child is initiated into language and the unconscious and repression appear in the psyche. The child now learns that words symbolize objects, and he… middle of paper… metonymic language theory. Furthermore, Lacan's theory of metaphor is clearly evident in Shakespeare's skillful writing which intensifies the metaphors of guilt. Shakespeare's play Macbeth is often seen as a story of greed and ambition. However, read from a psychoanalytic context, the work could have a much deeper meaning regarding our unconscious desires. Works CitedBressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 5th ed. 2011.Lacan, Jacques. “The mirror stage as formative of the function of the ego revealed in the psychoanalytic experience”. The critical tradition: classic texts and contemporary trends. Ed. David Richter. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. 1123-1128. Print.Shakespeare, William. The tragedy of Macbeth. Boston: D.C. Heath and Company, 1915. Google Books.Web. September 3. 2014.