In the beginning, the young boy displays signs of excitement and satisfaction when his father arrives unexpectedly on his visits from the war. His "pleasant musty smell" and "Santa Claus entrances and exits" interest him. As long as his daily routines with his mother are uninterrupted, he remains in a state of happiness. Larry lacked friends his age because the only person he spent time with was his mother. As a result he creates Mrs. Left and Mrs. Right to discuss his problems and to fight boredom with. The day his father came home from the war everything changed for Larry. He finds his father altogether less interesting when he arrives home. His father is not wearing his uniform and does not have any souvenirs from the war. At this point in the story the reader can actually understand why the story is called "My Oedipus Complex." Larry begins to show signs of a severe case of the complex. It is at this point where the competition for attention begins. This is the first time in his life without having the full attention of his mother and for the first time in his life he feels neglected. Larry does not know that his mother has to share her love and affection between him and his father. He also does not realize that his father is having a hard time right now finding a job to support the family. Larry develops a hatred for his father because of this. He is constantly waking his father up and fighting with him. Larry even believes that he will end up marrying his mother to get her away from his father. However, soon after his father's return from the war a new son is born into the family. After this event Larry changes his focus from his father to his new brother, Sonny. He now had to compete with his younger brother for his mother's attention. This is a competition that he will not win. The birth of his brother in the end will bring him closer to the man he "hated" for so long. Sonny consumed all of his mother's attention; she had not time for Larry and her husband. Larry is confined in his own little world throughout most of the story. He is a very naïve and selfish character. He has no sense of what is going on around him.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
The stories “Hop-Frog” and “The Masque of Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe are similar based on the presence of vengeance and gothic elements.…
- 328 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
2 Oedipus complex: Freud's theory that the male child envies his father and would like to remove him out of the way because the boy is secretly sexually attracted to his mother. His father obviously poses a formidable threat to such covetous affections.…
- 2039 Words
- 9 Pages
Powerful Essays -
In the Phallic stage of psychosexual development, a boy’s decisive experience is the Oedipus complex describing his son–father competition for sexual possession of mother. This psychological complex indirectly derives from the Greek mythologic character Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father and sexually possessed his…
- 45 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
Sophocles depicts the rise and fall of heroes from their excessive pride and hubris. The heroes,…
- 816 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
People read literature because it teaches about humanity, both the positives and negatives. Sometimes, they learn more from reading about the mistakes and flaws of characters. Oedipus Rex is one of these characters, flawed even though he thinks he is divine. According to Bernard Knox, “these attributes of divinity – knowledge, certainty, justice – are all qualities Oedipus thought he possessed – and that is why he was the perfect example of the inadequacy of human knowledge, certainty, and justice.” In Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus Rex, Oedipus’s untimely fall is caused by his false certainty of knowledge, his rash actions done without that certainty, and his injustice toward those trying to warn him.…
- 691 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Freud’s theory on the Oedipus complex is that it is the childhood desire to sleep with the mother and kill the father. He says that in Sophocles’ play, Oedipus exhibits a stages in which the child desires the mother because of the connection through birth and infancy, and resents (even desires the murder of) the father. According to Freud, boys…
- 382 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In the study of Greek plays, one tries to recreate for an experience, to recapture something of what is meant to those for whom it was written. We know more about the life of Sophocles than we know do about the lives of any other Greek playwright, but this still is not a lot. Sophocles’ work has been said to be the pinnacle of Greek tragedy. Oedipus the King is something like the literary Mona Lisa of ancient Greece. It presents a nightmare vision of a world turned upside down; a decent man, Oedipus, becomes the king of Thebes, whilst in the process unknowingly fulfilling a prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother. As scholars, we are bound to relate this story through history, to ask what the writer really meant, how…
- 869 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The story of Oedipus Tyrannus, otherwise known as Oedipus the King or Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles; it tells the story of Oedipus, the king of Thebes who is plagued by a self-fulfilled prophecy in which he kills his father Laius and marries his own mother, Jocasta. Not only is it widely recognized as Sophocles’ greatest work, the story of Oedipus has lent its name to what is recognized in the psychological realm today as the Oedipus complex, in which a young child feels “complex emotions” relative to that of unconscious sexual desire toward the parent of the opposite sex. Oedipus as a leader, separate from his web of extremely strange familial encounters, is a point of contention. Oedipus’ role…
- 1447 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Aristotle once said “A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall.” (Aristotle) Aristotle actually had a lot of ideas about heroes, specifically tragic heroes. He defined a tragic hero as an individual of high social standing, whose fatal flaw leads him to be brought low in a reversal of fortunes, which he later recognizes before receiving a fate worse than he truly deserves. One of the most famous characters from a play in the tragedy genre is Oedipus. His tale is one of destiny, hope, and finally sorrow. The question posed, however, is whether or not Oedipus really does fit this model of a tragic hero. Oedipus must be a nobleman and have his own tragic flaw that causes him to experience a reversal of fortunes…
- 1127 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
The primary destruction of Laertes and Ophelia’s psychological success stems from their immense fixation on a degree of the Freudian complex: “the dysfunctional bond with a parent of the opposite sex that one does not outgrow in adulthood and that does not allow one to develop mature relationships with their peers” (Tyson 17). Thus, Laertes and Ophelia constantly suffer from being “driven, by desires, fears, needs, and conflicts of which they are unaware” and in this case, these issues come from the loss of direction and affection from their mother (Tyson 12). This piece of the general Oedipus fixation is more applicable to Laertes as his childhood distress comes from a significant member of the opposite sex in his life. Being separation from…
- 594 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
A tragic hero is defined as “a [great] man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake” (“Aristotle”, n.d.). Therefore, a tragic hero has some sort of tragedy that surrounds their life. A tragic hero also makes dramas more interesting and makes readers think. Dramas sometimes either exemplify or refute Aristotle’s definition of a tragic hero. Oedipus by Sophocles exemplifies Aristotle’s definition in four different aspects. The first aspect involves both Oedipus’ ignorance and knowledge of his life situations, the second involves his hamartia, the third involves the actual plot itself, and the fourth involves the characterization of…
- 1506 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Oedipus the King follows the story of a man named Oedipus who tries to escape fate. Before the play is even started, the readers are given background information about Oedipus. When Oedipus was a baby his parents abandoned him. His parents, Laius and Jocasta, ordered a servant to leave him on a mountain to die. The servant, taking pity on Oedipus, gave Oedipus…
- 1522 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
After reading Shakespeare 's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, one comes to the conclusion that Prince Hamlet is defined by his indecision. This indecision has a dire consequence, namely the inability to act, which ultimately leads to his death and the deaths of most of the other characters by the play’s end, thus becoming Prince Hamlet’s tragic flaw. Due to his tendency to over think, over analyze, procrastinate, and stagnate in deliberation, the majority of the play focuses not on the actual act of revenge, but on all the delays in the events leading up to it. For instance, at first Hamlet is incensed to kill King Claudius after his father’s ghost informs him of the King’s treachery, but then he comes to doubt the ghost’s integrity and thinks perhaps it is actually an apparition of the Devil. This leads him to concoct an entire plan in which he writes a scene in a play depicting similar treachery and plans for Claudius to watch it in order to gauge his reaction. He has Claudius watched, successfully gets the reaction he wants, yet he still does not kill him when he has the chance, coming up with another rationalization. Every time Hamlet has an opportunity to act, he counteracts it with a doubt or a reason for inaction. He spends too much time planning and not enough time doing. By that time, Claudius, a man of action, becomes suspicious. Hamlet spends too much time thinking of what to do or what not to do, while King Claudius makes a plan and executes it. Because of this, Hamlet and seven others are dead by the end of Act V. But why is it that Hamlet cannot resolve to undertake anything without becoming paralyzed with hesitation? While Prince Hamlet’s flaws, internal conflicts, melancholy, and pretended madness were all contributing factors, his inability to act and his indecisiveness, which ultimately played the key role in his tragic downfall, can both be traced to a combination of internal and external factors.…
- 1905 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
"What walks on four legs at dawn, two legs at noon, and three legs at nightfall." This was the riddle posed by the Sphinx who at the time was destroying the city of Thebes. The riddle was solved by none other than Oedipus who was made king for ridding the city of the Sphinx. Ironically though, Oedipus in his life comes to embody the riddle of the Sphinx and its soulution. Firstly, the Sphinx is percieved as a curse on Thebes and Oedipus also becomes a curse by the end of the play. Secondly, Oedipus's physical health embodies the riddle. Thirdly, Oedipus's emotional state also resembles the riddle. Lastly, the events of Oedipus's life relate to the theme of identity in the play.…
- 963 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The Oedipus complex, Freud believed that everyone suffered a dramatic trauma which was the Oedipus complex. This is when a boy at the age of six would have sexual desires for his mother and wants to kill his father, in jealousy. The suckling child was used to having its mother’s attention, where the libido is…
- 299 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays