Oedipus: Greek Myths and Modern Research Paper

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 826 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 4

Page 1 of 3

The fact that most men sublimate this feeling, and instead identify with their father to obtain the maternal figure in the form of another woman, is the reason the Oedipus myth was generated in the first place.

Freud's theory was popular not only 'on the couch' but in literary theory. Ernest Jones suggested that it is the reason Hamlet cannot bring himself to kill his uncle: "Now comes the father's death and the mother's second marriage. The long 'repressed' desire to take his father's place in his mother's affection is stimulated to unconscious activity by the sight of some one usurping this place exactly as he himself had once longed to do… the two recent events, the father's death and the mother's second marriage . . . represented ideas which in Hamlet's unconscious fantasy had for many years been closely associated" (Jones 98-99).

Stuck Writing Your "Oedipus: Greek Myths and Modern" Research Paper?

View All Our Example Oedipus: Greek Myths and Modern Research Paper

Have A Custom Example Essay Written



Regardless of the merit of Freud's theory, Freud's understanding of Oedipus as a kind of primordial 'everyman' whose actions could be applied to everyone from a neurotic to Shakespeare's Hamlet, is not a true literary understanding of Oedipus' character. Oedipus, a king and a wise man in the original Greek tragedy, is presented as an extraordinary figure brought low by fate and given a uniquely horrifying fate (Mitchell-Boyask 2002). It was Freud who suggested that the unique nature of Oedipus' character and the horrors inflicted upon this unhappy man by the gods were not so unique at all, but a reflection of the natural psychological development and socialization of children. The Oedipus story, according to Freud, is a tale of why there is an incest taboo, not hubris.

Works.....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Oedipus Greek Myths And Modern" (2010, March 03) Retrieved May 20, 2025, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/oedipus-greek-myths-modern-13117

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Oedipus Greek Myths And Modern" 03 March 2010. Web.20 May. 2025. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/oedipus-greek-myths-modern-13117>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Oedipus Greek Myths And Modern", 03 March 2010, Accessed.20 May. 2025,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/oedipus-greek-myths-modern-13117
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example