Freud, Incest, Murder, and Oedipus the King Essay -- Oedipus Rex

Freud, Incest, Murder, and Oedipus Rex (the King) A Freudian analysis of Sophocles Oedipus Rex (the King) would show that Oedipus unfeignedly contained an incestuous nature. This was revealed not only by Oedipus marriage to his own mother, by whom he had children, but likewise by his irrational preference for his daughters, Antigone and Ismene. musical composition the attention he showered to his daughters was profound and sexually tinged, he dismissed his sons as creatures able to take care of themselves. Although he was unconsciously attracted to his daughters, he also feared that his daughters will become social outcasts and will be unable to marry. When Freud in his Interpretation of Dreams made his now famous observations about Oedipus the King, he course focused on the main issue that Oedipus killed his father and married his mother.(1) A further Freudian analysis of the play reveals another issue that came to surmount psychoanalysis the preference of Oedipus for his dau ghters. Oedipuss preference for Antigone and Ismene appears only at the very abrogate of the play, but it completes the picture of incest and murder in the family. Although mentioned at intervals in the play, the children of Oedipus do not appear until the last few pages. After he discovers his tangible parents and blinds himself, Oedipus turns his attention to his children, who are innocent victims of events beyond their control. But his reaction is fabulously biased in favor of the daughters Oedipus. Now, for my sons, Be not concerned for them they can, cosmos men, Fend for themselves, wherever they may be But my unhappy daughters, my dickens girls, whose chairs were always set beside my own At table - they who shared in every dish T... .... D. F. Kitto (Oxford Oxford UP, 1962) 95. 3 Sophocles, ternion Tragedies, 96. Works Consulted Abrams, M. H. A glossary of Literary Terms, 7th ed. New York Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1999. Ehrenberg, Victor. Sophoclean Rul ers Oedipus. In Twentieth vitamin C Interpretations of Oedipus Rex, edited by Michael J. OBrien. Englewood Cliffs, NJ Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1968. Fagles, Robert. Introduction to Oedipus the King. In Sophocles The Three Theban Plays Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Robert Fagles. NY Penguin, 1984. 131-53. Sophocles. The Three Theban Plays Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. Trans. Robert Fagles. NY Penguin, 1984. 157-25 Van Nortwick, Thomas. Oedipus The core of a Masculine Life. Norman, OK University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.