Jarrod Goergen

Family Matters

            Tragic plays and stories almost always involve the downfall of a single character. Throughout the play, this character becomes trapped within a string of tragic situations that eventually lead to this main character’s demise and also to his or her death most of the time. However, even though the tragic downfall involves one main character, the surrounding family of this main character is some of the most important people that lead to the main character’s downfall. Aristotle even noted in his Poetics that “when the tragic incident occurs between those who are near or dear to one another-if, for example, a brother kills, or intends to kill, a brother, a son his father, a mother her son, a son his mother, or any other deed of the kind is done-these are the situations to be looked for by the poet” (Aristotle on Poetics Handout). Therefore, the family is a highly important component that leads to the main character’s downfall.

            Furthermore, there is an important element found within many families in tragedies. Many tragedies detail families dealing with the Oedipal or Electra conflict, which is highly important to the downfall of the main character. The Oedipal conflict, defined and popularized by Freud, is when a son has a strong and passionate love for his mother and seeks to eliminate his father. The Electra conflict, defined and popularized by Jung, is exactly the opposite of the Oedipal conflict in that it focuses on a daughter having a strong and passionate love for her father while seeking to eliminate her mother. Throughout many of the tragedies we have read this semester, there is always some form of the Oedipal or Electra conflict present, even though it may present itself in twisted or different forms. The inclusion of the Oedipal and Electra conflicts within tragic plays outline just how destructive these desires can be if fully acted upon.

            In some tragic plays, the stepmother is the most important figure in creating the Electra conflict that fuels the main character’s downfall. For example, in Euripedes’ Hippolytos, Hippolytos is destroyed by his stepmother Phaedra’s lustful desires for him. Even though she is married to Theseus, Hippolytos’ father, she still has secret desires for her stepson. After she reveals her desires for Hipploytos to her nurse, who falsely promises to keep everything that Phaedra tells her as secret, the tragic events that follow quickly destroy Hippolytos. Phaedra ends up killing herself to avoid persecution and scorn, and leaves behind a suicide note that falsely accuses Hipploytos of trying to seduce her and rape her. Theseus quickly decides to exile his son out of any town he rules over out of pure anger without hearing any of the true facts. Before Hippolytos even leaves town, however, he is killed by his own chariot team, but does get to have one last conversation with his father before he breathes his one last dying breath in which his father learns the truth that his son actually did no wrong.

Furthermore, in Eugene O’Neill’s Desire Under the Elms, the tragic downfall of Eben is created by his stepmother Abbie’s lust for him. Once Abbie is brought into the home by Eben’s father Mr. Cabot to be the new mother of the house, Abbie quickly has passionate thoughts and desires for Eben. Even though Eben fights against these desires for quite some time, he eventually falls for her. In an effort to gain control of the property after Cabot dies, Abbie persuades Cabot to have a child with her so that she can have direct ties to the Cabot family by birthing a child. Once the child is born, however, it is rumored and eventually learned that the child is in fact Eben’s. Once Eben learns that Abbie wanted the child to gain property rights, he threatens to leave everything behind and go out west to get away from all of the drama. However, she kills the child to prove she really loves him and they both get taken away by the Sheriff after Eben admits out of love that he also had a role in the murder. Therefore, both Hippolytos and Desire Under the Elms involve families dealing with the Electra conflict, even though the Electra conflict is greatly twisted. Instead of a daughter loving her father and having desires to eliminate her mother, these two plays involve a stepmother having passionate desires for their stepsons.

            However, the Oedipal and Electra conflicts in their true forms are also present within families in tragic plays. For example, Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus details Oedipus as he travels and arrives in Colonus. Prior to Oedipus’ journey to Colonus, he gouges out his eyes after learning that he had killed his father long ago in a fight on the road and had actually married his maternal mother in Oedipus the King, which is the exact definition of the Oedipal conflict. Therefore, his daughters are in a way his sisters, and his sons are his brothers in a way also. The Oedipal conflict has completely disrupted Oedipus’ once happy and content family, and leads to Oedipus, a once great king over Thebes, gouging his eyes out and mysteriously ascending from Colonus into his suspected afterlife.

            Therefore, the family plays an important role in Tragedy. Almost always, the main character of a tragedy is surrounded by a family that is in turmoil. Furthermore, this turmoil is usually created by some form of the Oedipal or Electra conflict that is eventually brought to the surface and is no longer a secret amongst the family members. One of the things that make the genre of Tragedy great is that it gives a voice to taboo topics such as incest, which is directly seen in the outlining of the Oedipal and Electra conflict within families in tragic plays (Greatness of Tragedy Handout). Even though we as normal people may see or experience some forms of the Oedipal or Electra conflicts in our lifetime, we very rarely ever act upon these desires and simply learn to shut them out of our lives. Tragedy, however, outlines the destruction these desires can cause if fully acted upon.