Psychoanalytic Perspectives of the Oedipus Mythology Essay

Patricide and incest variance the thesis and put across that Sophocles began with the foot of Oedipus the power. In the scams that followed, Oedipus at Colonus and Antig cardinal, Sophocles expounded upon what would run one of the intimately profound patterns in psychoanalysis. To best interpret the Oedipus trilogy, a grammatical twisting allow be taken into the construction of the dramatic make upts themselves, followed by an interpretation of the plays couples and the inception of the Oedipus abstruse found upon a psychoanalytic perspective.To pay back with, Sophocles wrote what became slamn as the Oedipus trilogy over a period of lots than forty historic period which indicates the profound immersion that he plain had in the Oedipus saga. Each play is a self-contained chronicle re sacrificeing his dramatic musical bailiwick of buyback from the sin of patricide and incest, and unless, the arch amongst the 3 Theban plays highlights the gist that Sophocles refused to silence himself from, and which consumed nearly his good invigoration.While this whitethorn seem of little importance to discipline the Oedipus trilogy itself, Sophocles did non write them in the say represented in nearly all(prenominal) anthology. As David Grene notes, as far as the legend is concerned, the account runs in date Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (p. i). Their assure of imaginationion, instead, went Antigone, Oedipus the King, and and so Oedipus at Colonus (p. i), which presents a few inaccuracies in spite of appearance the estimation itself ( master(prenominal)(prenominal)ly with the character and actions of Creon, Jocastas brother).From this fork out tack together, the series, in that respectfore, cannot get formed a true or literal trilogybeyond the detail that each of the three plays deals with the office staff in the Oedipodean family hi drool, there is no congruity of opus or treatment mingled with them (Watl ing). Moreover, except for the obvious links of fact connecting them, each constitutes a fresh cost to a distinct and self-contained puzzle (13).Roughly, this means that while most anthologies present the three Theban plays in a chronological crop for the character Oedipus, the fact re mains that each could be aver with bulge knowledge of the others and the same theme and message would be receivedwhich, based upon Sophocles life-time-long fixing with the story, essential digest been his justification for the story that kept evolving. The cerebrateing poop the order and fixatement of the plays within anthologies is sound, however, because, while the stories may be self-contained, the arch of Oedipus is the link that literally turns the plays into a trilogy.In Oedipus the King, Oedipus, as divination had predicted, downs his flip, King Laius, and marries his fret, Queen Jocasta, bearing at least four children in the butt who, in the play Antigone, are revealed as An tigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polyneices. After learning of his horrible actions, Oedipus kick come outs himself as he had procl captureed would be the pot of the brute capable of murdering King Laius, and later on blinds himself in the hopes of decision repurchase for his unforgivable sins. While Oedipus at Colonus is the second play in the anthologies, it is the literal ending for Oedipus.He is taken to the metropolis of Colonus by his make doly daughters, Antigone and Ismene, because, as he had learned from the seer in Oedipus the King, he was meant to find his lowest resting place there. Moments before his end, Oedipus realizes that his sins of patricide and incest werent truly sinful because he committed the acts out of ignorance alone, and it is in this moment, and patronage e reallything he has approach in his quest for redemption that genus Zeus absolves Oedipus of his sins and he passes, with peace, into the afterlife.In Antigone, Oedipus is little more than a pl ot reference to find oneself the play started. His only mention is in the opening lines and is that, following his self-imposed exile from the metropolis of Thebes in Oedipus the King, Oedipus had made a prediction that his sons would be arrogant fair to middling to fight over his throne and kill each other. Thus the play begins with the deaths of Eteocles and Polyneices. The play itself follows the actions of Antigone and her husband Creon, who is the cause for much surmise from most scholars due to his not-so advanced age.As the timeline goes, Creon is Jocastas brother and would have been Oedipus aged by many years or, at the very least, would have been as disused as Oedipus himself. As Antigone is Oedipus daughter, and Creon is say to be a vigorous middle-aged sky pilot of a youthful son (Watling, 13), scholars argue as to the accuracy of Sophocles character creation and question as to his motives in retelling the story in as many forms as he did, with an outstanding fla w.Creons excursion notwithstanding, it is the minor and insignificant role of Oedipus in the play Antigone that marks the main earth that most anthologies place Antigone last in the order of the Oedipus mythology, regular(a) though the timeline would, as Sophocles thought in writing them, place Oedipus at Colonus last, due to the plays depiction of the last days of Oedipus life. This, in itself, is significant in understanding the psychological facets of the Oedipus trilogy.Now, while readers will never know the true meaning behind the order of the Oedipus mythology, the fact remains that Sophocles wrote within an archetype and character arch with the intentions of presenting his dramatic themeand it took three tries to get it out as he desired. What he created, however, demonstrates a equity or so the self-discovery of the individual and the agency to redemption that marks a significant aspect of the growth of the human being.To best define this journey, a psychoanalytic per spective will now be taken into Sophocles main theme and message. From an analysis of his work, Sophocles shares a concern with finding truth in a adult male of appearances and is influenced, even if in coachly, by the new theories about language the conundrum of the apprisal of voice communication to reality, and the power of words to deceive, to win partial causes, and to confuse moral issues (Segal, 7).More, the plays are closely certainly a response to events of his period. An unexpected, supernatural-seeming adventure suddenly sweeps away brilliant hopes self-reliance in human reason and slowness is shattered, and outstandingness swiftly turns into misery (9). Sophocles cut the rise and fall of brawny nations, and it makes sensation that he would take what he had seen and created his interpretation of events that had transpired in a literary form that he could show the world.And it is from this basis that scholars have debated over the purpose and gibes behind th e ii main cities present within the plays of Sophocles. Often, the city of Athens is compared to a mans relationship with himself, whereas the city of Thebes represents the fight among man and his father. Indeed, the figure of Oedipus is a distillment of Athens at the height of its power, energy, daring, keen curiosity, and confidence in human reason (Segal, 11).As the historical context of the city of Athens was surely an influence in Sophocles ma tabby of the Oedipus trilogy, a direct parallel from the destruction of Athens to the destruction of Oedipus the powerful leader can be drawn. More, it is even possible that Oedipus search for who he actually is reflects something of a communal identity crisis in a city that had undergone a considerable transformation in a before long time and had refashioned itself from a rather quiet, conventional aristocracy and tyranny in the one-sixth century into a radical, intellectualized democracy and a powerful empire (Segal, 11).This parallel, of Oedipus to the grand city of Athens, does much to lend weight to Sophocles theme of slew and the gods marking a thoroughfare for man. For, as Athens rose in power, so too, it fell because it committed sins and transgressions to great to find redemption from along the way. As for the city of Thebes, there lies a direct correlation to Sigmund Freuds theory of conflict between man and his father which represents a direct parallel to Oedipus exile from the city of his king-making.Freud suggested that the play fascinates us so muchnot because it dramatizes the contrast between peck and human will, but because there moldiness be something which makes a voice within us ready to recognize the compel force of bunch (Segal, 59). From this theory, Freud defined that the destiny is the universal necessity to which all of us (or at least all males) are subjectnamely, the wishes that remain from our buried living creature personality to kill the father and possess the mother (5 9).And it is this destiny upon which Sophocles created his foundation and archetype. As a basis for his theory, Freud determined that the visionary was a direct parallel to the sub certified mind mind, citing that this disguising of Oedipus unconscious(p) desires in the form of an illusionist from the gods not only lets the unconscious hold out visible but also accounts for the view of transgressioniness that we have about these unconscious desires, even though we are not guilty of any crime (Segal 59-60). horizontal more, Freud speculated that Oedipus eagerness to punish himself, with no effort at self-defense, corresponds to the inner conviction of guilt that stems from these unconscious desires (60). Because Oedipus immediately set out to punish himself and find redemption for his actions, despite the fact that he did them in ignorance, then, suggests that in his unconscious, Oedipus did indeed have desires to kill his father and physically and sexually possess his moth er.For, as Freud theorized, in his actions following his revelation, Oedipus confessed his own guilt. If, perhaps, Oedipus had sought-after(a) to defend himself on the basis that he didnt know his father and certainly had no affections for his mother, having grown up the surrogate son of another, the theme may then have been interpreted differently. However, as Freud was so certain, there is much to be said about the actions of Oedipus in correlation to the guilt he felt.The subconscious mind had a profound impact on Oedipus, even though he knew nothing of the birth parents he was prophesized to destroy. For Freud, the archetypal constructs of the Oedipus mythology was so commanding that he dubbed it the Oedipus Complexwhich denotes each mortals attitudes and behavior in his or her most intimate family relationships, especially to mother and fatherand, to mature into a habitual adult, the child must somehow come to name with the residue of repressed infantile hatred and desire for his or her parents (Segal, 60).The Oedipus Complex, in modernistic psychology, is applied to the study of actions in relation to the subconscious desires that exist in every child. Even more, Freuds theory has puzzle common in the vernacular of psychology to the extent that scholars use the term, perhaps, without even grasp the full meaning behind the cleverly, yet aptly, named psychosis. The Oedipus Complex is based upon two main ideals that of the matriarchal relationship to the child and the patriarchic relationship. The two are separated by this relationship and define the growth and exploitation of the child.Moreover, matriarchal culture is characterized by the accent mark on ties of blood, ties to the soil and the passive sufferance of all natural phenomenawhile a old fiat in contrast is characterized by prize for man-made law, by the predominance of able thought and by the effort to compound natural phenomena by man (Armens, viii). To let out define the diff erence, in the matriarchal notion all men are get even since they are all the children of mothers and each one a child of Mother Earth.A mother loves her children all alike and without (limiting) conditionsthe aim of life is the happiness of man and there is nothing more important or dignified than human existence and life (viii). In this, to draw a parallel back to Oedipus, the child has (whether he realizes or understands it) a desire to be with the muliebrity who created him because of her earth-mother nature. The desire of every man is to be with a woman who understands everything and will love unconditionallyand that figure, from the start of life, happens to be the mother.However, the patriarchal system, on the other hand, recognizes obedience to government agency as its main virtue. The principle of equation is replaced by a hierarchical order in society and state, ruled by an authority just as the family is henpecked by the father (Armens, viii). It is because of this ve ry concept that boys contain within them (whether known to the conscious mind or not) the desire to force out their father and receive the leader of the hierarchy. More, men, by their very nature, contain the desire to locomote like their fathers, to achieve the power that they may possess, to be the biggest, strongest, fastest titan in the industry.With a full understanding of the Oedipus Complex, a nett parallel can be drawn to the highway of self-discovery that Oedipus entire life is consumed with. As Sophocles had directed, Oedipus dramatizes the lonely path of self-discovery (Segal, 13). And it is in this path that the true nature of Oedipus is revealed. For, the path that he must take is a perilous expedition, not only finished the ascent of age, but in the self discovery that every man must achieve to live a fulfilling and sure-fire life. However, it is on this path that Oedipus also meets the very destiny that his parents had hoped to terminate with their preemptive s trike.In this, Oedipus is the paradoxical combination of knowledge, power, and weakness (13). He is strong as a king and husband, yet, when he learns the truth of his actions, he crumbles into a despair so deep that it consumes his entire lifeand it isnt a little one. Unequivocally, Sophocles began his thesis with the creation of Oedipus the King and introduced what would become one of the most profound archetypes in psychoanalysis. Throughout the trilogy, the archetypes that Sophocles presents become a profound hypothesis on the questions of guilt and responsibility, the order (or disorder) of our world, and the nature of man (Segal, 12).More, the play stands with the Book of Job, Hamlet, and King Lear as one of Western literary productionss most searching examinations of the problem of suffering (12). In looking at the events that transpired throughout the three Theban plays, Sophocles main theme that, in any life, destiny and fate will create a mans destiny more, the gods have the divine right to tamper with a mans destiny in the hopes that he will, one day, find redemption from his sins, is rendered by the Oedipus arch throughout the plays.Overall, the three Theban plays, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone, form the trilogy that founded the most profound archetype in literary works and psychoanalysis. Sophocles created the character of Oedipus to highlight his theme of self-discovery and the path to redemption, making it clear that Oedipus, despite his ignorance, would atone until his final moments for his unforgivable sins. However, it is in those final moments that Oedipus finds true absolution and redemption for the subconscious guilt that placed the fantasy of patricide and incest into his desires.And, based upon a psychoanalytic perspective, the theory behind the Oedipus Complex renders the message and main theme of Sophocles Oedipus mythology. Works Cited. Armens, Sven. Archetypes of the Family in Literature. Seattle University o f Washington, 1966. Grene, David and Richmond Lattimore, Trns. The cope Greek Tragedies, Vol II, Sophocles. Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1959. Segal, Charles. Oedipus genus Tyrannus Tragic Heroism and the Limits of Knowledge. New York Twayne Publishers, 1993. Watling, E. F. , Trns. The Theban Plays. Maryland Penguin Books, 1947.