The Oedipal Conflict
Oedipus Rex is the story of a childhood dream gone terribly wrong. Sophocles was a great playwright who used human tragedy to the fullest. His Oedipus Rex, one of the Theban plays, was a demonstration of what can happen to anyone, whether of greatness or not. Every son has an infatuation with his mother and swears that they will marry her. The difference with the every normal person and Oedipus is, normal people aren't sick enough to follow through with the infatuation to this extreme. This play is one about a very disturbed man who stresses from his discoveries of who he is and why he is. This part of the plays dramatic irony makes it very interesting as well as, in a way, disgusting. The fact of the passion for his mother/wife, Jocasta, is important because it helps with the explanation of Aristotle's five points of tragedy. These three things are relevant throughout the play and have prime examples and are proven as well. The Oedipal conflict, as described in Sigmund Freud's interpretation of Oedipus Rex, is a conflict which arises in every young boy, the love, or in some cases infatuation, with his mother. "It is the fate of all of us, perhaps, to direct our first sexual impulse tow
ards our mother and our first hatred and our first murderous wish against our father." (Oedipus Rex by Sigmund Freud, Pg103). This is usually done because the mother is loved to the point of being the only one in the world with any meaning in life, she's the first one truly seen. Without a mother, there is no existence; there is mother earth, which even today people try to protect, there is also father sky but he is not protected nearly as much as mother earth. Throughout the play, Oedipus protects his wife and looks to her for assistance as well. This can be looked at from many aspects; one being him looking to his mother, unknowingly, for advice, Another being the fact that he may know more than he really does. This is the dramatic irony in the play, being that we know the incest and he is seemingly unaware of the difficulties he is to face. Jocasta is an important person in this story because Oedipus has great passion for her. He believes that she can do no wrong and that he should be free and clear especially since he left Corinth where he was told that he would rise to kill his father and marry his mother. He is all riled up and to calm him down Jocasta says, "Well, I don't believe in psychics. I'll prove it. Laius and I were told that our baby would kill him and marry me. But this never happened, because we left the baby to die in the woods. And the witness said that Laius was killed at
Some common words found in the essay are:
Freud Pg103, Greek Literature, Mortals People, Rex Theban, Oedipus Rex, oedipus rex, dramatic irony, Sigmund Freud's, oedipal conflict, five tragedy, throughout play, mother earth, infatuation mother, gods god,
Approximate Word count = 951
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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