Till We Have Faces Character Analysis

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

Jimmy knows too well the agonies of abandonment. First, when his mother, Cecilia, ran away with Richard to pursue a better lifestyle. Then, due to his father’s, Damacio Baca, alcoholisms and violent behavior; he also had to leave Jimmy behind. In spite of the drawbacks from abandonment to being a maximum security prisoner in Arizona State Prison, Jimmy preserver’s the darkness of prison by overcoming his illiteracy. However Cecilia and Damacio is not as fortunate as their child; Cecilia is shot by Richard after confronting him for a divorce and Damacio chokes to death after he is released from the detox center(Baca 263). Therefore the most significant event in this section of the memoir, A Place to Stand by Jimmy Santiago Baca is the death of Jimmy’s parents.

Orual first takes her sister for mad, but eventually is convinced the perhaps she should leave Psyche to her new found joy, to the love of her husband. But her jealousy and obsessive love step in , grudging Psyche her happiness, her love. Orual is unable to comprehend, much less approve, of any love for Psyche that usurps her own. Orual, predictably, resents the gods for the gulf now so plainly separating her from Psyche. "…the world had broken in pieces and Psyche and I were not in the same piece. Seas, mountains, madness, death itself, could not have removed her from me to such a hopeless distance. Gods, and again gods, and always gods…they had stolen her." (TWHF, pg.120-121)

Though Orual did not agree with her beloved sister being sacrificed, it was something the Priest decided that would ultimately benefit the kingdom. She demanded to go with Psyche to say her last goodbyes, “....I was determined to go with Psyche to the Mountain and the holy Tree, unless they bound me with chains (77).” Psyche was willing to be sacrificed when she knew she would help everyone she loved, even when she felt miserable, “‘...my arms were as heavy as lead (106).’” Even when she was being tied to the tree, “‘...and they were fastening me to the Tree with iron round my waist (107).’” she wasn’t focused on herself and her own pain. When being tied to the Tree, Psyche explained how many animals surrounded her, “‘And they came nearer and nearer in a great circle, but never very near, and mooed at me (109).’” Once Psyche was set free, she described the great wind around her, “‘And then the wind was

In the eyes of today’s society, heroes are viewed as citizens who have accomplished what seems to be the impossible. Whether imaginary or not, heroes are looked at with awe and congratulated for what they have done for the society. However, there is a much simpler way to be a hero. A hero does not have to be able to climb walls, fly over the city, or even save someone from a burning building right before it crumbles down. A hero is simply someone who goes out of the way to give help to those around them that need it. This hero does not need recognition in what he or she does, but takes pride in what they have accomplished for others. In the novel Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis, Bardia, the King’s lead guard, acts as the hero for Orual

I was pleased to have attended a lecture cosponsored by the Ethics Center, the Fresno State office of the president, the Fresno Bee and Valley PBS. The lecture began with Dr. Castro recognizing a few leaders on campus, including a past Fresno State president, Dr. John D. Welty and campus volunteer Mary Castro. Dr. Castro then mentioned a few things about Mr. Brooks stating that he is a columnist for the New York Times and an analyst for the PBS “News Hour” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” Dr. Brooks also teaches at Yale University, one the finest university in the country. Dr. Castro continued by saying that he learned that Mr. Brooks office hours are from 9am to 1pm and how “cool” it sounded to him. I was surprised how many people attended the event. I was fortunate to find a seat. David Brooks mentioned how he has some remote roots in the Central Valley because his father grew in Chowchilla, CA but Mr. Brooks grew in New York.

    Orual is writing a book as her complaint against the gods and all the wrong that they have done to her. Through her narrative she demonstrates to the reader her erroneous thinking, which she realizes later in her life. . She sees her own face in the second section of the book when the veil in front of her spiritual face is removed and her true self  is exposed. She realizes that she was not as righteous as she believed herself to be. The things that she thought were right had been wrong. She hurt a lot of people with

Freud’s theory of Oedipus complex has brought a lot of controversies in modern psychology and literature while some critics opine Freud’s concept of Oedipus complex deserves a great deal of appreciation. When Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) proposed that the Oedipus complex was psychologically universal, he provoked the evolution of Freudian psychology and the Psychoanalytic treatment method.¬¬¬¬¬¬¬ Certain contemporary psychoanalysts agree with the idea of the Oedipus complex to different degree. Hans Keller proposed it is so "at least in Western societies"; and others consider that ethnologists already have established its temporal and geographic universality. Nonetheless, few psychoanalysts disagree that the "child then entered an Oedipal phase which involved an acute awareness of a complicated triangle involving mother, father, and child" and that "both positive and negative Oedipal themes are typically observable in

Ophelia begins the play as an average girl growing up in a place that would predispose her to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Her father’s murder did not drive her insane, but shook an easily shaken system. “First her father slain: Next your son gone; and he most violent author Of his own just remove…. Poor Ophelia Divided from herself and her fair judgment, Without the which we are pictures, or mere beasts” (Shakespeare).

She decides to do what had never perhaps been done in the world before, to write the case against the gods and her case ends with Orual expecting the same direct act of judgment from the gods that she mistakenly foresaw after the destruction of Psyche's palace. Orual expects the judgment she for so long tried to escape by turning herself into a different person and in the end she faces the problem

Joan Montgomery Byles’s view of Ophelia’s behavior in “Ophelia’s Desperation” and Sandra K. Fischer’s view of Ophelia’s behavior in “Ophelia’s Mad Speeches” contradict each other and present opposing explanations. Byles’s view is that Ophelia is defined by the male roles in her life (i.e. her father, brother, and lover). Fischer’s view is that Ophelia is simply grieving the loss of her father and fails to break the hold of the men in her life. These two analyses present opposing explanations because one author is saying that Ophelia simply cracked because she has lost her father and she just could not handle it and the other is stating that Ophelia went mad and committed suicide because she was tired of

     Strangely, though, Psyche relates to Orual only days before the sacrifice that she has always felt a certain vague longing for the Grey Mountain, even for the holy Shadowbrute For as long as she can remember, Psyche has felt herself somehow destined for a land beyond the Grey Mountain, far from Glome. In fact, she has never felt truly at home in Glome. This aspect of religious belief - longing for another world- is once used by Lewis elsewhere as proof that humankind was created for another world. Orual, in typical fashion, interprets Psyche's longing for the far kingdom as a threat against their own relationship, giving in to the omnipresent urge to selfish, and self-centered, love. "'Ah Psyche,' I said. 'Have I made you so little happy as that?' 'No, no, no,' she said. 'You don't understand…It was when I was the happiest that I longed you most…Somewhere else there must be more of it. Everything seemed to be saying, Psyche, come! But I couldn't (not yet) come and I didn't know where I was to come to…I felt like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home.'" (TWHF, pg. 74)

Around the age of four children have an unresolved desire for sexual gratification through the parent of the opposite sex, this is especially common the desire of a son for his mother.This concept is known as the Oedipus Complex. In William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the psychological concept of the Oedipus Complex is strongly present in the relationship between his mother; Gertrude. The character of Hamlet is very complex and many would say that he does display characteristics of the Oedipus complex, when Hamlet is analyzed within framework of psychoanalytic literary criticism although, that many literary analysts disagree.

This is the woman she might have become – warm, tolerant and imaginative. Instead she becomes jagged, benighted and imaginative. . . .Ophelia is made mad not only by circumstance but by something in herself. A personality forced into such deep hiding that it has seemed almost vacant, has all the time been so painfully open to impressions that they now usurp her reflexes and take possession of her. She has loved, or been prepared to love, the wrong man; her father has brought disaster on himself, and she has no mother: she is terribly lonely. (73-74)

9. Freud claims that the Oedipal\Electra dynamic plays a significant role in human development. How might understanding this dynamic help us interpret Hamlet’s actions? Ophelia’s actions?