"OEDIPUS THE KING" VS. THE ODEIPUS COMPLEX

"OEDIPUS THE KING"

• Oedipus was lead to believe he was born of a different kingdom.
• He ends up killing his father as fortold by the oracle of Apollo.
• He ends up marrying his own mother after murdering his father.
• He sleeps with his mother in his fathers bed.
• Over the years he has 4 children with his mother.

Quotes
"I would not have come to shed my father's blood, nor been called among men the spouse of her whom I sprang. But now I am forsaken of the gods, son of a defiled mother, successor to his bed who gave me my own wretched being; and if there is yet a woe surpassing woes, it has become the portion of Oedipus" (145).

Explanation
This quote is describing the incest portrayed in Sophocles play. It is also describing the plague Oedipus brought on his own people and on his royal name.

OEDIPUS COMPLEX

Definition:
The Oedipal complex is a term used by Sigmund Freud in his theory of psychosexual stages of development to describe a boy's feelings of desire for his mother and jealously and anger towards his father. Essentially, a boy feels like he is in competition with his father for possession of his mother. He views his father as a rival for her attentions and affections.

Understanding the Oedipus complex:
According to Freud, the boy wishes to possess his mother and replace his father, who the child views as a rival for the mother's affections. The Oedipal complex occurs in the phallic stage of psychosexual development between the ages of three and five. The phallic stage serves as an important point in the formation of sexual identity. The analogous stage for girls is known as the Electra complex in which girls feel desire for their fathers and jealousy of their mothers.

SIMILARITIES

Facts:
The attachment of the child to the parent of the opposite sex, accompanied by envious and aggressive feelings toward the parent of the same sex.
These feelings are largely repressed (made unconscious) because of the fear of displeasure or punishment by the parent of the same sex.
In its original use, the term applied only to the boy or man.
The idea of the Oedipus Complex is derived from Sophoclesi' Oedipus Tyrannus, during which Oedipus learned that he was cursed to kill his father and sleep with his mother.

WORKS CITED

• "Oedipus the King" packet
• "The Oedipus Complex" By Lauren Dolloff November 16, 2006