Oedipus Rex: The Oedipus Complex Essay, Research Paper

Thousands of old ages after Sophocles wrote the narrative of Oedipus Rex ; psychologists named a composite after the behavioural features of Oedipus. For many old ages psychologists have called a boy holding a sexual attractive force toward his female parent the Oedipus Complex. It is common belief that Oedipus Rex did non really suffer from the Oedipus Complex. The basic support for this theory can be found through Oedipus & # 8217 ; built-in fright of the prognostication placed upon him, by the Oracle, really coming true.

Oedipus is told, by a member of the royal tribunal, of the prognostication of the Oracle. The love for his female parent and male parent, and the mere idea of the prognostication drives Oedipus into retreat. He fears that if he stays in Corinth, that the prognostication may come true. This is clearly one mark that Oedipus did non endure from the Oedipus composite. The thought entirely of making such a thing as holding sexual dealingss with his ain female parent thrusts Oedipus from Corinth, off from royalty, and the lone life he has of all time known. If Oedipus truly did endure from the composite, he would non hold run away from his life, subconsciously he would desire to remain, and likely would hold. Oedipus non merely fears the prognostication as a younger adult male, but besides as male monarch of Thebes when the prognostication returns to stalk him.

Oedipus sends Creon to the Oracle to happen out the true slayer of the former male monarch of Thebes. When Creon returns and Tells Oedipus what the Oricle has told him, him ignites. Oedipus flies into a ferocious fury impeaching Creon of intriguing to over through Oedipus. Oedipus refuses to believe that a prognostication such as that could of all time come true and that Creon was either lying or has bribed the Oracle into giving a false prognostication. Oedipus instantly demands the retrieval of the Oracle to the castle. This shows an deathless inexorability toward turn outing the prognostication incorrect. Oedipus obviously does non desire to come to the world that would of all time make anything along the lines of what the prognostication provinces, and he genuinely believes that it must be wrong because he knows he would ne’er victimize

ciously do anything like that. After the Oracle’s prognostication is brought to Oedipus, the king’s denial merely increases. The Oracle’s future visions scare Oedipus into rage. Enraged he claims that the Oracle clearly has no existent powers, and denies any truth out of his prognostication. Oedipus has entered the point of choler at this point. He refuses to believe it clearly because the mere idea of it sickens him. If he were to genuinely hold the composite, he could non contend the facts for every bit long as he did. Not even after happening out the truth did he fall in into the credence that he wanted to make it.

Equally shortly as the world of the prognostication sits in, the queen commits suicide. Oedipus takes it upon himself to carryout self-inflicted penalty for the wickednesss he eventually realizes he has committed. If Oedipus had genuinely wanted to hold sexual dealingss with his female parent, so he would non hold committed such a awful act of mutilation upon himself? To perpetrate self-destruction would non be out of the inquiry if he had been enduring from the complex. Loss of his worship could be a justified motivation. Yet he pierced his ain eyes out because he was ashamed to look at his parents in the hereafter. This degree of humbleness would non be present if Oedipus knew that Jocasta was truly his female parent. If Oedipus were to genuinely hold the composite, so he likely would ne’er hold arrived in Thebes in the first topographic point.

If Oedipus Rex was enduring from the Oedipus Complex so he would hold likely stayed in Corinth where he believed his true female parent resided. He would non hold known Jocasta of Thebes in a sexual mode if he had acquired an attractive force to what he thought was his birth female parent, Marope. If Oedipus Rex had suffered from the Oedipus composite, so we might hold ne’er heard the narrative of Oedipus the manner we did, and his state of affairs, in bend, would likely hold ne’er been called the Oedipus Complex.

Bibliography

Sophocles, Oedipus the King. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry,

and Drama. Eds. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. 2nd Compact erectile dysfunction. New York: Longman, 2000. 960-1000.