LITR 4370 TRAGEDY Midterm2 Samples 2015 (midterm2 assignment) Model Answers to Part 3. Begin Research Report

Part 3. Begin Research Report: Write at least 3-4 substantial paragraphs with two sources toward completion of your Research Report on selected special topic (to be completed on Final Exam)

 Nona Olivarez

Family Problems: We All Have Them

Incest. The word alone creates a look of disgust among everyone’s face because the thought of sexual relations with another family member is more than disturbing. The mere idea of incest is extremely taboo and for good reason. Thinking of a blood family member in any sexual way remains bizarre to the world because family is supposed to be just that, family, not potential lovers. Despite the word’s ability to create an uncomfortable feeling that smothers the room, incest or at least the question of potential incestuous relations stands prevalent in tragic story lines and is hard to ignore.  In the essay, “Families in Tragedy and the Oedipal/ Electra Complex”, Umaymah Shahid states “Throughout Greek Tragedy as well as modern Tragedy families are seen to be intimate on two extremes: hate and love; where both hatred and love lead to their demise”. Families of Tragedy appear to be engaged in constant war against one another whether hate prevails between wife and husband, mother and son, or mother and daughter there is a continuation of betrayal, death, and revenge. But where there lives extreme hate there also lives extreme love, and this is where the lines blur from a normal, healthy relationship to a somewhat obsessive relationship that raises questions of an underlying romantic love for a mother or a father, thus introducing the Oedipal/Electra Complex.

So what purpose does the Oedipal/Electra Complex have in Tragedies? Perhaps it is because families are something that everyone has and in reality no one has a perfect family. Aristotle’s Poetics proclaims, “[T]he best tragedies are founded on the story of a few houses [i.e., families]”. Displaying struggle among family members makes the members of the family seem substantially more real and in the same sense more relatable. Furthermore, the Oedipal Complex defined means when the son covets his mother, and has an antagonistic relationship with his father. This Freudian psychology originates from the play, Oedipus the King, as the character Oedipus infamously kills his father and marries his mother; however Oedipus does these things unknowingly. If he knew that was his father he fought he may have not killed him, and if he knew who is mother was he definitely wouldn’t have married her. When Oedipus realizes what he has done he stabs his own eyes out as an act of self-punishment for the wrongdoing he committed against his family.  The family struggle is created by Oedipus unintentionally and as a result questions the significance or better yet the credibility of the Oedipus complex. Upon researching the Oedipus complex specifically dealing with the play, Oedipus the King, I found a promising academic journal by Margaret Clark who analyzes the Oedipus complex, and argues that the Freudian sexual theory “conveys psychic truth of no greater or more central importance to human development than do the stories of many other myths” (233). The academic journal pertains to the psychological aspect of the Oedipus complex, and openly criticizes the already questionable Freudian theory. Clark raises a good point when she discusses the fact that the play’s central focus is the struggle between fate and free will, and not the taboo family relations that Freudian psychology takes particular interest in. Yet the dynamic family struggle is hard to ignore because of how bizarre it remains, and how unique it is to the story. According to Clark, Freud believes what occurs with Oedipus is our “childhood wishes” being fulfilled, which I found an interesting concept as Freud is relating the Oedipus complex all the way back to the innocence of childhood where the feelings of love/hate for the mother/father, according to Freud, originate (234). An article by Joseph Lichtenberg discusses in great detail the different development stages a child goes through when concerning different types of love, including parental, and the overall effect different patterns of love have on the psychology of a person. It was interesting to learn more about the psychology behind the Freudian theory from both Clark and Lichtenberg and I wish to further explore their ideas in the third part of the Midterm, especially that of Clark who makes very thought-provoking assertions concerning the play Oedipus the King and The Oresteia trilogy.

In contrast the Electra complex defined means when the daughter and mother are in complete opposition of one another and in competition for the father/husband’s love (Dr. White’s course website). The play, Mourning Becomes Electra, displays the rivalry between mother in daughter in the form of the characters Christine and Lavinia. From the very beginning Christine and Lavinia’s relationship appears to be severely strained as they come into constant odds with each other. Although Lavinia looks in appearance like her mother she does everything she can to conceal any similarities by wearing plain clothes and pulling her hair back tightly. The source of hatred is revealed when it becomes evident that Lavinia never felt loved by her mother, and as a result turned to her father for her main source of parental love as child and through her teenage to young adult years. Both of these elements together in the story demonstrate the Electra complex, which lends to the dramatization of families. Despite the fact the Electra complex is evident in the play Mourning Becomes Electra, it is important to note that the Electra complex is almost obsolete when concerning psychology as psychologists have discovered other more credible forms of mother-daughter relationships. So why does the Electra complex exist at all in literature? Perhaps because “tragedy expresses a combination of humanity's creative or formal impulses with its destructive or wild impulses”; a concept taken from Nietzsche’s, The Birth of Tragedy (Dr. White’s course website). For instance in Agamemnon, Electra loves her father so intensely she convinces her brother to murder their mother in an act of revenge, which easily can be said to be a “wild impulse” based alone on pure emotion. After all Tragedy’s real purpose is to imitate real life and likewise human nature, and so the Oedipus/Electra complex do not necessarily have to be taken literally but perhaps symbolically as they represent human impulses and family problems.

As a result of my research I learned a great deal about the Oedipus complex and the psychology behind it that you do not get from the readings. It’s a very intriguing topic and I wish to explore it more in depth as I was limited to scholarly information via web because it is such a taboo topic. I couldn’t find anything concerning the Electra complex because it does not have the same prestige in the psychology community as mentioned before. However I do wish to further research both topics, and as well as reviewing the background psychology of the Oedipus complex I want to further explore the purpose the Oedipus/Electra complex has in literature and the relation to families in tragedies each complex has. I decided to rely on research through the web because I’m shy and the thought of interviewing faculty members well versed in the subject made me extremely nervous, but after only a little bit of success with the research through the internet I’m starting to realize I should have taken Dr. White’s original advice to interview faculty members, so if I can work up the courage I plan to add what I can learn from that to part three, which will hopefully give me a more well-rounded research report.

Works Cited

Clark, Margaret. "Suppose Freud Had Chosen Orestes Instead." Journal Of Analytical Psychology 54.2 (2009): 233-252. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.

Lichtenberg, Joseph. “Patterns of Love in the Four- to Six-Year-Old Period and the Dispositional Effect They Create.” Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 30 (2010):478-484. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Apr. 2015.