Essay about Oedipus the King and Oedipus Complex

Oedipus Rex, an ancient Greek tragedy authored by the playwright Sophocles, includes many types of psychological phenomena. Most prominently, the myth is the source of the well-known term Oedipal complex, coined by psychologist Sigmund Freud in the late 1800s. In psychology, “complex” refers to a developmental stage. In this case the stage involves the desire of males, usually ages three to five, to sexually or romantically posses their mother, and the consequential resentment of their fathers. In the play, a prince named Oedipus tries to escape a prophecy that says he will kill his father and marry his mother, and coincidentally saves the Thebes from a monster known as the Sphinx. Having unknowingly killed his true father Laius during his

In this stage a child discovers their genital organs and begins to fantasize about pleasure and masturbation (Engler, 2013). During this phase Freud distinguishes the Oedipus complex for boys and the Electra complex for girls. A boy will become very attach to his mother and become very envious of his father; castration anxiety will begin to accumulate (Engler, 2013). If the Oedipus complex is successfully negotiated, the boy will begin to adapt and identify with his father.

In all theories of relationship, Sigmund Freud's Oedipus Rex's complex has been the most studied, it has also sparked a lot of debate. Freud used the study result of a boy in 1909 in his analysis, he described the 5-year-old boys fear for horses because of a feeling of anger he had developed internally and relating to his parents. He theorized that little boys usually choose their mother primarily for sexual interest, he said they subconsciously wish to expropriate their fathers and become their mothers' lover. Freud theorized that this behavior is usually observed in children between the ages of 3 - 5 when the child is in a stage he called the phallic stage of development. Since the child suspects that his actions based on these feelings will lead to danger and his desires will be repressed, leading to anxiety. This analogy, the Oedipus Rex's complex is named after Sophocles' protagonist who obliviously murders his father to marry his mother.

“ The young male, the Oedipus conflict stems from his natural love for his mother, a love which becomes sexual as his libidal energy transfers from the anal region to his genitals. Unfortunately for the boy, his father stands in the way of this love. The boy therefore feels aggression and envy towards this rival, his father, and also feels fear that the father will strike back at him. As the boy has noticed that women, his mother in particular, have no penises, he is struck by a great fear that his father will remove his penis, too. The anxiety is aggravated by the threats and discipline he incurs when caught masturbating by his parents. This castration anxiety outstrips his desire for his mother, so he represses the desire. Moreover, although the boy sees that though he cannot posses his mother, because his father does, he can posses her vicariously by identifying with his father and becoming as much like him as possible: this identification indoctrinates the boy into his appropriate sexual role in life. A lasting trace of the Oedipal conflict is the superego,

Oedipus as the tragic hero moves us to a state of pity. Just as the

According to Freud, the Oedipus complex is a boy’s intense desire to replace his father and enjoy the affections of his mother (King 366). This reference comes from the story Oedipus the King since our story’s hero, Oedipus, kills his father and marries his mother. Freud describes the Oedipus complex as being part of the phallic stage of a person’s psychosexual stages of personality development, which is when a child’s pleasure focuses on the genitals. I believe that the concept of the Oedipus complex is an extra-literary observation for two reasons: Oedipus thought his parents were the king and queen of Corinth and he did these acts unknowingly. Laios, king of Thebes, was told a prophecy that one day his son would kill him, so when his wife gave birth to a son he gave the child to a shepherd who would expose the baby on Mount Kithaeron. However, the shepherd felt bad for the baby and gave him to the king and queen of Corinth; Oedius

Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality was met with much violence and rejection at first, but was later accepted and supported strongly. "I found in myself a constant love for my mother, and jealousy of my father. I now consider this to be a universal event in childhood," Freud stated. The Oedipus complex, named after the Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex by Sophocles. Freud said that each stage was a progression into sexual maturity, characterized by the strong ego and the ability to postpone gratification and pleasure. He used the Oedipus conflict to demonstrate how believed that people instinctively desire incest and must repress that desire. The Oedipus conflict was described as a state of psychosexual development and awareness.

The Oedipus complex occurs in 3-6 year old boys. Sons possess sexual feels for their mothers and as a result resent their fathers who are viewed as their rival. The son fears that his father will find out and castrate him. He then represses his feelings for his mother and identifies with his father as a role model of masculinity. By identifying with his father the son learns how to act as a man (Kaplan, 2000).

The third stage of development in Freudian theory is the “Phallic stage”, which starts at the age of three and goes on until the age of six. During this particular stage according to Freud, children are said to take pleasure in their genitals and they also struggle with sexual desires, especially strong desires towards their opposite sex parent (girl desiring her father and boy desiring his mother). This kind of behavior in boys is called as “Oedipus complex”, which according to Freud means that the boys during this stage desire their mother and want to replace their fathers, who are seen to be seeking the mother’s attention, because of this desire the boy is afraid that his father might find out and punish the boy by the process of castration(cutting off the penis) due to which they may develop castration anxiety. And the same desire called “Electra complex” which is the desire developed in girls for their fathers and in the thought of replacing their mothers is discussed during later on by Carl Jung. This stage helps in the development of Superego in life.

The Oedipal complex occurs, Freud believed, with most young boys. The father is seen as a rival for the mother's affections. Young boys soon realize that this idea has a vale of silence surrounding it and, as a result, they suppress these instincts. Playwrights use their plots sometimes for a psychological revealing of these taboo issues. The Oedipal Complex is at the center of the play Oedipus Rex and was, obviously, named for the title character. The oracle said that Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother. In Hamlet, a closeness can be felt (and seen in the movie) between Hamlet and Gertrude. Shakespeare seems to have been pointing to the issue when he wrote the bedroom confrontation scene between Hamlet and his mother and even had King Hamlet's ghost appear in a nightshirt. In Desire Under the Elms, Eben and his brothers voice their wish that their father were dead. They all had their first sexual experience with the same prostitute, but the complex really becomes clear in the parlor scene between Abbie and Eben and Eben's mothers ghost. Abbie offers to replace his mother and they make love for the first time in "her" room.

Developed by Sigmund Freud, the Oedipus Complex, which applies to males, and the Electra Complex, which applies to females, is said to be “‘one of the most powerfully determinative elements in the growth of the child’" (Welcome to the Purdue OWL). These complexes states that a child takes towards the parent of the opposite sex as the object of their affections, with feelings of jealousy and anger towards the opposing parent (Rubin). In Hamlet, characters such as Hamlet and Ophelia portray this characteristic, as illustrated through Hamlet’s fixation with his mother, and Ophelia’s inclination to do anything her father tells her to do. This, in turn, also affects the balance between Hamlet and Ophelia’s relationship.

“[Reading] psychoanalytically... [enables the readers] to see which concepts are operating in the text in such a way as to enrich our understanding of the work” (Tyson 29). Reading a piece of literary work through psychoanalytic lens, the readers are able to more comprehensively understand the actions and motivations of characters. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus changes throughout the play from a responsible ruler to a hysterical hunter to a solemn sinner. Through psychoanalysis, the readers are able to explain shifts in Oedipus' character and his past decisions. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus actions can be explained by the id, ego, superego, and fixation.

The characters of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex and Antigone’s actions can be explained in terms of cultural or religious implications, gender expectations, and the impact of authority on a personal scale. Austrian Psychologist, Sigmund Freud interpreted, or in some cases misconstrued, the behavior of the characters as disturbances in the part of the brain humans have no control over- a perspective known as the psychoanalytic approach. Freud claimed that all of man's actions are a manifestation of the workings of the unconscious mind, and most troublesome behaviors are linked to suppressing its desires. The Oedipal Complex exemplifies this in young men who Freud stated have an unconscious and primal urge to compete with their fathers for their mother’s love and sexual attention. Although Freud theorized this concept with Oedipus as the inspiration, suppression of these subconscious desires evoke irrational behaviors driven by paranoia and aggravation, much like the actions taken by Creon, and Oedipus. Readers often identify the hamartia of these characters as hubris, but a psychoanalytical approach reveals that Oedipus, and Creon’s actions are deeply rooted into their subconscious fear of losing love, happiness, and pleasure, and doing so will trigger a lifetime of aggressive, volatile, and sometimes sexually driven behaviors.

The story of Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex helped Freud to help illustrate his theory to the public. In this story, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother “Slay my father and he dies… fear not that marriage with thy mother” (Oedipus Rex, lines 1000 & 1013). According to Freud, all male children form an attraction for their mother around ages 3-5 during the “phallic” stage of development,. Eventually they learn to repress their sexual desires for their mother because the fearing of being castrated by their father (threats son’s masculinity). However, if the boy doesn’t repress his feeling for his mother “the sexual wishes in regard to the mother become more intense”, and the Oedipus complex will be carried past childhood into adulthood; this makes it very difficult for him to form relationships with other people especially women. In other words, the child will never grow out of this and he will be dysfunctional in adulthood.

In Psychoanalytic theory , Oedipus complex is a desire for sexual involvement with the parent of an opposite sex . in this process , an infant has a sexual orientation towards his mother .